ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 

^^OF^ — 

NEW MEXICO 



BY 



BENJAMIN M. READ 

ATTORNEY AT LAW 



Author of the Works 

Entitled: "A Historico-Synbptical Sketch of the Mex- 
ico-American War,"' and "Historia Ilustrada de Nuevo 
Mexico." 

Ex-Speaker of the House of Representatives of New 
Mexico. 

(Translated from the Second Spanish Edition — Revised 
enlarged, corrected and with notes). 
Four books in one volume. 



Translated into English under the direction of the 
Author, by 

ELEUTERIO BACA, OF LAS VEGAS, N. M. 



Copyright, 1912, by Benjamin M. Read. 



NOTICE. — All rights reserved. The engravings of doc- 
uments, letters, newspapers and individual portraits are 
copyrighted. No one is allowed, under penalty of the law, to 
reproduce or copy them without my written permission. 

THE AUTHOR. 



FIVE HUNDRED COPIES 



Printed 


by the 
No._ 


New 


Mexican 


Printing- 


Company 















vC C!.A8n;f>Rfi 




BENJAMIN M. READ, 
Santa Fe, N. M. 



Dedicated 

to 

The Memory of My Mother 



THE AUTHOR 

Santa Fe, N. M., 1912 



i 



PREFACE. 



The author of this work entered public hfe some years ago, 
as a school teacher, tilling for the tirst time the honored post 
of preceptor of the College of the Christian Brothers, Santa 
Fe, New Mexico, in the year 1876 and continuing thereafter 
for several years in charge of the various public schools of 
the Capital. Thus it was that he came through personal 
observation, and after many and very careful examinations of 
the several writings on history, to notice that remarkable 
differences and striking contradictions exist among some of 
the English speaking authors, in their respective narratives 
of historical events whenever it is a question of the discovery 
of America by Columbus, the conquest, colonization and 
christianization of Mexico by Cortes, and of South America 
by Almagro and the Pizarro brothers. The author of this 
work attributes the discrepancies and contradictions of the 
authors mentioned rather to the fact that they had, 
perforce, to depend absolutely on the translations which are 
supposed to have been made from Lhe original works and 
original documents by translators who, by reason of their 
never having seen the said originals and also because of their 
not being Spanish scholars, have not, in almost every 
instance, rendered into correct English the spirit of the 
original texts, changing quite often, the substance of the 
language of thefirst authors; whence the result has been that 
no two works of the same history, translated from the 
Spanish into English, by different translators can be found to 
agree with one another and much less with the original 
works. This statement is easily proved by simple compari- 
sons of the works of these writers, with the original accounts 
given by the conquerors and first authors. Upon comparison 
it will be readily seen that, although they give long lists of the 
first authors, and even of the discoverers and conquerors of 
New Mexico, they have simply had former translations 
retranslated. The greater part having had, it seems, a 
retranslation made of the incomplete, incorrect and unreliable 



6 prp:face, 

translation made some few years past, by one De Thoma, here 
in Santa Fe, of a few paragraphs from Bancroft's "History of 
Arizona and New Mexico," and which said De Thoma pub- 
hshed in a small pamphlet calling it "Historia de Nuevo 
Mejico." De Thoma, though, was honest enough to state 
that what he gave us was all taken from Bancroft. Some of 
the said writers on New Mexico history have, it appears, used 
De Thoma's labors clothed in boastful verbosity and giving it 
to the world as the genuine, true and accurate history of New 
Mexico, citing the notes and authorities listed by other 
writers without knowing enough Spanish to ascertain the 
truth of the translations they copy from, hence the great 
confusion extant among these historians. One of these 
students of New Mexico history published an alleged history 
of New Mexico, in 1907, in which he makes the absurd state- 
ment that De Vargas "died in Bernalillo while on his way 
from Santa Pe to New Mexico.'" 

The author of this work does not intend to say that there 
has not been both sincere and competent translations, for 
most assuredly there have been many such. For instance 
Hodge's translations of the narratives of Cabeza de Vaca, De 
Soto, Coronado, Castaneda, Jaramillo and other discoverers 
and conquerors of New Mexico do not, in anything impair 
the sense nor the meaning of the original narratives; but 
some of the English speaking authors have, apparently, only 
copied each other to the extent that no two of them agree in 
their translations whence a great deal of confusion arises in 
their exposition of historical events and incidents. Such 
reasons as these led the author of this work to dedicate 
many years to the study of the original writings, with the 
end in view of writing, as correctly as possible, a true his- 
tory, for which purpose he spared neither means nor ex- 
penses, and now he offers the present work as the fruit of 
his labors. 

As our state repi'esents four distinct epochs, viz: the pre- 
historic epoch; the epoch of the discovery of the American 
Continent, its conquest, christianization, and civilization by 
Spain; the ve/y brief epoch of its permanence under the 
Mexican government, and, finally, the history of the Amer- 
ican epoch or the epoch of our own day, so to speak. The 



PREFACE. 7 

Author has deemed it more apropos to write this work in 
four books in a single volume, wherein shall be presented 
first: A summary or compendium of the theories advanced 
by historians regarding the hitherto unfathomed arcanum 
of the origin and beginning of the aborigines that inhabited 
this continent before its discovery by Columbus and the 
other discoverers who followed after him. Aside from the 
historical summary and compendium mentioned, the first 
book will contain brief accounts of all that pertains to that 
most splendid of human episodes recorded in the history of 
the world — the discovery of America and the conquest of 
Mexico (1492-1595) for between those two dates, besides the 
great discovery the following events crowded upon each 
other in rapid succession, viz: the celebrated pilgrimage of 
Alvar Nuflez Cabeza de Vaca. and his companions, Andres 
Dorantes, Alonzo del Castillo, Maldonado and Estevanico, the 
African; the expeditions of Fray dela Asuncion, Fr. Marcos 
de Niza, Francisco Vdsquez de Coronado, Pedro de Alvara- 
do, Francisco Ibarra, Fray Agustin Rodriguez (Ruiz), Fray 
Beltran, Antonio de Espejo, Castano de Sosa, Francisco Ley- 
ba y Bonilla, Juan Humana etc., etc. 

The second book will start with detailed accounts of what 
happened between 1595 and 1598. Since the real conquest 
and colonization of New Mexico was carried into effect 
between those dates by Don Juan de Onate, the author has 
deemed it his duty to enter into more extensive details of 
Onate's expedition, as he was the first conqueror and pacifier 
of New Mexico. 

In the third book the main events will be related which 
resulted from material, industrial and religious development 
— all due as a whole, or, in the largest part to the activities 
of the Catholic Church and her missionaries; the uprising of 
the natives which gave as its sequel the defeat and flight of 
the Spaniards under Governor Antonio Otermin; the recon- 
quest and permanent pacification of the Territory by Don 
Diego de Vargas, Zapata Lujan, Ponce de Leon or all that 
occurred between the years 1593 and 1703. 

The fourth book will contain important illustrations, and 
information in detail of all that happened during the regime 
or dominion of the governments of Spain and Mexico up to 



8 PREFACE. 

the year 1848 when the formal annexation of the Territory to 
the American Union took place. This last book also contains 
several appendixes and biographical sketches of prorLinent 
citizens of the State together with the photographs of 
many of them. 

The lack of exactness in the various translations and the 
irreconcilable contradictions of the aforesaid historians in 
regard to what the original narrators did say concerning 
the discovery and conquest of New Mexico, as well as the 
very evident want of harmony between said historians and 
the Spanish and Mexican historians in reference to points of 
great historical importance were motives that induced the 
author of this book to make researches in Madrid and Bar- 
celona, Spain, in order topffer his readers the history of our 
State as written and published by the explorers, conquerors 
and old writers, that is, in such manner as it is found in the 
manuscripts, and old books first pubhshed. I have been 
completely successful in my efforts, as I have found every- 
thing I longed for, being tlius enabled to present to the 
public, with the utmost pleasure, a true, complete and accu- 
rate picture of the interesting voyages and achievements of 
the men who so gloriously accomplished them, that thus my 
readers may be able to enjoy the pleasures which they will 
surely feel in the reading of narratives so astounding as to 
border on the romantic, the sublime, the incredible. 

In order to obtain these works it became necessary, in ad- 
dition to the expense I had to incur, to have the co-operation 
of persons settled in Spain, and, luckily, personal friends 
of mine, became interested in helping me. In Granada, 
Spain, my distinguished friend, Doctor Don Luis Hernandez, 
for some years resident of New Mexico, was the gentleman 
who secured for me the valuable services of Senor Antonio 
Aragon Moutejo, a professor of Madrid, and also of Don Fran- 
cisco Sicilia, a prominent attorney of the capital of Spain, for 
the purpose of looking in the libraries of that city, for the 
documents I needed. To these gentlemen, the author of 
this work takes herewith the grateful pleasure of tendering 
his most sincere and heartfelt thanks for their help and 
co-operation. Besides this expression of gratitude, so justly 
due and so well deserved, the author desires also to add, to 



PREFACE, 9 

the names ot the persons already mentioned, the names of 
others, whom he is also very thankfully indebted to, for 
having helped him with very old autographic and inedited 
documents whose historical value is of incalculable weight, 
and which, by reason of their having not been known before, 
will add to the originality and interest of this history, while, 
at the same time, will be a complete rectification of many 
errors found published, in many books of history, as events 
that really occurred. These gentlemen are: The Rev. Joseph 
Pugens, worthy Secretary to his Grace, Archbishop Pitaval, 
whose assistance in examining old autographs has been of 
great use to me; Don Santiago Valdez and his wife, Dona 
Agustina V. de Valdez, of Taos, who during their lifetime, 
donated me documents of the rarest importance without 
which a large portion of this history would have been incom- 
plete; Don Juan Delgado, of Santa Fe, in whose hands I found 
a very precious collection of inedited documents of great 
historical value; Mr. Thomas B. Catron, who furnished me 
with valuable works of historiographei-s of repute; Mr. L. 
Bradford Prince, ex-Governor of New Mexico and author of 
the first English History of New Mexico written after the 
annexation; Captain Don Rafael Chacon and his son. Attorney 
E. Chacon, of Trinidad, Colorado, who furnished me with 
some very important data; Don Matias Dominguez, of 
Santa Fe, in whose possession is found the report of the 
counter movement in 1887 by Armijo and other patriotic 
citizens to put down the Chimayo rebellion: Don Demetrio 
P^rez and the Secretary of State, Hon. Antonio J. Lucero. 
The method pursued in the narratives of the conquerors, their 
historians, and those that succeeded them, by the author has 
been to base his statements strictly on the history itself 
without supplementing it with his individual opinion but 
leaving to his readers the opportunity of forming their own 
ideas. 

In conclusion, I have to state that I keenly appreciate the 
undeserved praise, expressions of cominendation and appre- 
ciation of this work of mine by such men as Archbishop Pita- 
val, ex-Gov. L. Bradford Prince, Hon. O. i^. . Larrazolo, Pro- 
fessor A. M. Espinosa (of Stanford University), Judge E. V. 
Long, Rev. P. Tommasini, S. J., Hon. R. E. Twitchell, Hon. 



10 PREFACE. 

Antonio J. Lucero, Don Demetrio Perez, and other men of 
high standing in the world of letters, and also, of the favor- 
able comments of the public press, but more especially of La 
Revista de Taos, the Santa Pe New Mexican, Revista Cato- 
lica, La Bandera Americana, La Voz del Pueblo and El Eco del 
Valle, all of New Mexico and El Progreso, Trinidad, Colorado. 
These unmerited compliments make me feel very sensibly 
my shortcomings in attaining my ideal of an accurate history. 
Conscious of my limited ability I have absolutely discarded 
all sorts of verbosity and also my own conclusions on all mat- 
ters not based on undisputed original authority, realizing 
fully the difference which exists between what one aspires to 
accomplish and what is actually accomplished. 

BENJAMIN M. READ, 
Santa Fe, New Mexico. 



ADDENDUM TO THE PROLOGUE. 



Among the authorities I failed to receive from Spain in 
time for my tirst Spanish Edition of this work, but which 
were subsequently received and are now included in this my 
tirst English Edition, are the appointment of Pr. Marcos de 
Niza. his journey to the Cibola Country (Zuni), his report 
and claims of Hernan Cortes, all in Niza's own "RELA- 
CION;" also the depositions of Pedro de Bustamante, Her- 
nan Gallegos and Hernando Barrado, Bancroft erroneously 
calls him "Barrundo,'" (three of the eight soldiers that ac- 
companied Chamuscado and Brother Augustin Rodriguez 
(Ruiz), Fr. Francisco L6pez and Fr. Juan de Santa Maria 
to New Mexico in 1581), given before Viceroy Mendoza in 
Mexico as follows: The testimony of Hernan Gallegos and 
Pedro de Bustamante was taken on the 15th day of May, 
1582, and the testimony of Hernando Barrado was taken in 
Mexico on the 20th day of October, 1582. From the testi- 
mony of Bustamante it was learned that Francisco Sanchez 
Charauscado, who was accompanying them to Mexico, had 
died on the way, 30 leagues from Santa Barbara. From the 
testimony of Barrado it was first learned in Mexico of the 
death of the three mentioned Religious. Many other authen- 
tic official documents, received also after my tirst Spanish 
Edition had gone to press, are now included in this English 
Edition, among them being the last report from Coronado to 
the King, dated Tiguex, October 20th, 1541. Also the in- 
augural address of Governor Albino Perez, delivered in 
Santa Fe, June 1835, by which it is conclusively shown the 
date of his arriving in Santa Fe from Old Mexico. These 
additions will make of this tirst English Edition as complete 
a history as it is possible to make it, making it, at the same 
time, absolutely accurate and authentic. 

I want to say that my collections of authorities, as well as 
my correspondence with my literary agents in Spain and in 
America, relative to my researches, etc., are at the disposal 
of all persons who may wish to examine these valuable docu- 
ments. 



12 ADDENDUM TO THE PROLOGUE. 

In conclusion the reader is asked, if he has the opportun- 
ity so to do, to examine carefully the manj^ works written 
on New Mexico history that he may judge for himself of the 
"very uneven fjuaiity"' (using Bancroft's words), "with not 
few errors, and more omissions — defects due in most cases 
not so much to the incompetence of the authors as to the 
inaccessibility of original authorities."" Some of these au- 
thors claim that the most important works for New Mexican 
history are Torquemada, {Monarquia Indiana), Clavijero, 
Oviedo, Gomara, Ventacurt, Herrera, Mendieta, Mota Pa- 
dilla and Villagrd. Of these authors only Torquemada, Mota 
Padilla and Villagra, are authorities, somewhat limited, 
though, Torquemada's work, published in 1723, can only 
be considered important on New Mexico history in so far as 
it deals, briefly and unsatisfactorily, though, with the jour- 
neys of Coronado, Niza and Fathers Lopez, Juan de Santa 
Maria and Brother Ruiz — (Rodriguez) who was not a priest 
as is generally and erroneously stated by many historians, 
(Torquemada's "Monarquia Indiana" vol. 3, p. 626) and with 
Onate"s journey and the troubles between the Fransiscan 
Fathers and Onate (Torquemada, "Monarquia Indiana," vol. 
1, p. 672-678 et seq) certain as it is that he never saw the re- 
ports of Coronado, Castaneda, etc., noi- the testimony of 
Pedro de Bustamante and Hernan Gallegos, given in May, 
1582 nor that of Hernando Barrado, given in October, same 
year, before viceroy Mendoza, in the city of Mexico, as 
stated above, regarding the journey of the Fathers Lopez 
and De Santa Maria and Brother Ruiz. This is evident, for 
he, Torquemada, says in vol. 3, p. 626, supra, that these sol- 
diers (who came with Ruiz etc., under Chamuscado) did not 
reach New Mexico, that they, said soldiers, had abandoned 
the Fathers, etc., after they had traveled 250 leagues, and 
that the Fathers and Brother Ruiz "continued the journey 
until they reached New Mexico." Says Torquemada, "Acom- 
panaronle en este viaje, que fue aiio de 1581, diez 6 doce 
soldados, que se le juntaron de su mera voluntad, aunque 
que con diferente espiritu del que estos Religiosos Uevaban, 
porque haviendo andado 250 leguas dende Mexico, y viendo 
que se metian muy lexos del socorro, si lo hubiesen me- 
nester, y entre mucha gente, siendo eilos tan pocos, acorda- 



ADDENDUM TO THE PROLOGUE. 13 

ron de dar buelta para Tierra de Christianos, como lo hicie- 
ron. Los frailes prosiguieron su viaje viendo que los 
Naturales de aquellas Tierras, por todas ellas los recibian 
amorosamente, y pasaron otras 150 leguas mas adelante, 
hasta Nuevo Mexico, que ellos f ueron los que pusieron este 
nombre." 

The report of Bustamante, Gallegos and Barrado, reference 
to which the reader will find at the proper place in this work, 
and which is in my possession, proves conclusively, that said 
soldiers, under Chamuscado, did accompany the Padres and 
Ruiz — as already shown — as far as New Mexico; that they, 
the soldiers, discovered mines in New Mexico and had left 
Ruiz and the two Fathers at Puaray (near Bernalillo). Outside 
of these events— the Coronado, Niza and Ruiz and Oiiate 
events — Torquemada is of absolutely no importance to New 
Mexico history, and, as the reader will observe, he, Torque- 
mada, is at variance with Coronado, Bustamante, Gallegos 
and Barrado — the only original authorities on that point, all 
of which I have received direct from Spain, and fails to 
mention Castano de Sosa, Humana, Bonilla, Lomas de Colme- 
nares and others who tigured prominently in New Mexico 
history. 

As to Villagra's "Historia de la Nuevo Mexico,'" while it 
does not cover all of Onate"s government it is, so far as it 
goes, the best on the periods it covers. Clavijero, Jesuit 
historian, and Mota Padilla are very, very brief, as brief and 
as deticient as Torquemada, neither of them can be classed as 
authority for, like Torquemada, when put against the original 
reports of Niza, Coronado, Castaiieda, Espejo, Castano de 
Sosa, De Vargas and the other real actors they fall to the 
ground. As to the other authors so mentioned, none of them 
wrote much on New Mexico, and it would have been impos- 
sible for them to do so. Oviedo (also a priest) che famous 
Spanish historian died in 1557, twenty-four years prior to 
Ruiz's journey, his work, "Sumario de la Historia General y 
Natural de las IndiasOccidentales," was published in Toledo, 
Spain, in 1526 (before Cabeza de Vaca's famous journey 
across the continent), and again in 1535, he republished the 
same work, amplified in 21 volumes. Gomara (also a Padre) 
was Chaplain to Cortes in Spain, in 1540, pubhshed his 



14 ADDENDUM TO THE PROLOGUE. 

"Hispana Vitrix in 1552, de todo lo acaecido hasta 1551," 
erroneously mentions Coronado's journey, etc., (all that had 
happened until 1551)."' This work was afterwards condemned 
by the king of Spain on account of being inaccurate and 
unreliable (this work I have also). Gomara died in Spain in 
1556, consequently he never wrote much on New Mexico. 

Ventacurt, Mendieta, etc., do not, so far as I have been able 
to discover, dwell on our history in such manner as to be 
considered authorities, and none of the lot, outside of Villagrd, 
can be cited as reliable authorities for the reasons stated; as 
to Herrera, I have not yet heard nor found any author or 
authors of that name outside of the Herrera who wrote an 
"Historia General,'' whoever wrote on our history. Two such 
names figure in our history that is to say, oflicially but not as 
authors, these are — Sebastian Herrera, who was captain in 
the Spanish army in New Mexico, at the time Otermin and 
the other Spaniards were expelled from New Mexico in 1680, 
and the other, Nicolas Herrera, also a captain in the Spanish 
army in New Mexico in the earlier part of the nineteenth 
century. Mendieta, who wrote his work, "Historia Eclesias- 
tlca, " two years prior to Onate's entry into New Mexico could 
not, under any circumstances, have written on New Mexico, 
his work was published in 1596-1599, and Ofiate's conquest of 
New Mexico was etfected in 1598-1599. So far as my investi- 
gations have enabled me to discover the truth, Bancroft is the 
only one of former authors that quotes Mendieta, but not as 
an authority, saying that Mendieta "merely wrote notes that 
the viceroy is now fitting out 0"s (Onate) expedition.'" (Bacft. 
Ariz. & New Mex. Ill note 1). It is thus seen how easy it is 
for the ablest of historians to fall into error when they are 
not thoroughly familiar with the language the original 
authorities are written in, having, necessarily to depend upon 
former authors who, for the reason stated, were just as much 
in error, and who it is evident, never saw the source of their 
information, and had to depend on translations, tradition or 
hearsay evidence.* At the present time, fortunately, no his- 

* Many authors rely wholly on John Gilmary's Shea's works, 
which are as faithful as the works of any other honest, well meaning- 
author. Mr. Shea, though, on what he says on Cabeza de Vaca, 
Niza, Coronado, etc., relies absolutely on translations and collections 



ADDENDUM TO THE PROLOGUE. 15 

torian depends on such writers, since the real facts exist and 
are accessible, specially when it is shown that none of the 
former old historians, barring, of course, those who were 
discoverers or conquerors and historians like Cabeza de Vaca, 
Castafieda, Coronado, Jaramillo, Villagra, Oiiate, etc., and a 
few others agree with the original narrations, some of which 
were not accessible until a few years ago. 

BENJAMIN M. READ, 
Santa Pe, N. M., 1912. 

made l>y others and not on having- seen the original official reports of 
the explorers, conquerors, etc. For his references on Cabeza de 
Vaca's journey he depends on a work published in Washington for 
Geo. W. Riggs, Jr., in 1851 under the title of "Shipwrecks of Alvar 
Nunez Cabeza de Vaca,"' by Buckingham Smith. — For his, Shea's, 
authority on what he says on Niza, Coronado, etc., he relies on a col- 
lection made by Ndjera, same being an appendix to his, Najera's, 
work entitled "Kelacion de Castaneda de Najera." See Shea's "Dis- 
covery of the Mississippi."— The Author. 



NOTICE TO THE FIRST PUBLICATION OF THIS WORK IN 
THE ENCLISH LANGUAGE. 

The publication of my "Historia Ilustrada de Nuevo Mex- 
ico" in the Enghsh Language, under the title of "Illustrated 
History of New Mexico" is made from the second Spanish 
edition after it had been carefully revised, corrected, am- 
plified and improved with convenient and necessary annota- 
tions adding to it many and very important matters. That 
circumstance, together with the elimination of several minor 
things of a purely local and private nature which, through 
erroneous information furnished me were included in the 
work, gives greater importance to this edition, making it 
thereby more exact and much more interesting. — The 
Author. 



CONTENTS. 

Book I. 

Chapter I. — Prehistoric Times — Mythological Hypothesis of 
Historians in regard to the origin and civilization of the 
Indigenous Races — The Aztecs and their Empire. .33-48 

Chapter II. — The Aborigines of New Mexico — What is 
gathered from their traditions regarding their Origin 
and Source — Discovery of America — Empire of Monte- 
zumas — Conquest of Mexico — Cortes and Cuahute- 
moc 49-69 

Chapter III — Accounts given by Alvar Nunez Cabeza de 
Vaca of the Tragical end of the Armada of Pantilo de 
Narvaez — Graphic Narrative of all that happened between 
the years 1528-1536, and in the wonderful journey made 
from coast to coast by Cabeza de Vaca and his three 
companions 70-98 

Chapter IV-.^ — The journey of Fray Juan de la Asuncion and 
of Fray Marcos de Niza— Niza is accompanied by Este- 
vanico, a friar named Onorato and some Indians from 
New Galicia — Description of the journey to Cibola (Zuni) 
and death of Estevanico — Niza takes possession and 
names the Province — Niza's return to Mexico— Cortes 
disputes thediscovery of New Mexico against Niza. 99 118 

Chapter V. — Useless efforts of Nuiio de Guzman to find 

Cibola — Foundation of Culiacan and the Province of New 
Galicia by Guzman — Tradition concerning the seven 
cities — Diego de la Torre Successor to Guzman — Coro- 
nado successor to Diego de la Torre — Mendoza under- 
takes the discovery of Cibola — Coronado and his expedi- 
tion — Outcome of the expedition and its return — The 
whole thing a total failure — Fathers Juan de Padilla and 
Juan de la Cruz, the first martyrs in New Mexico. 119-166 
Chapter VI. — The Foundation of Santa Fe discussed — Voj^- 
ages of Francisco Ibarra — Fr.Augustin Rodriguez (Ruiz) 
— Fr. Francisco Lopez and Fr. Juan de Santa Maria — 
Chamuscado accompanies them — Fr. Bernardino Beltran 
— Antonio de Espejo — New Mexico is named — Castano 
de Sosa — Bonilla and Juan Humana — End of the First 
Book 168-192 



20 CONTENTS. 

Book IL 

Chapter I. — Epoch of Ofiate's Entry — The conquest is made 
in fact — Christianization and Pacification of the Indigenes 
of New Mexico 193-216 

Chapter II. — Various voyages of Oiiate — Firstcolony founded 
with the name of "San Francisco" — Mob in the colony— 
A few colonists take to flight — Villagra imprisons them 
and punishes two of them by hanging — Oiiate decides to 
discover the Gulf of California — Uprising of the Acomas 
— Villagra is sent to Mexico — Dissentions and complaints 
of the priests — Other incidents 217-232 

Chapter III.- OUate gives report of his operations and asks 
assistance to follow up the Conquest — Sends emissaries 
to Spain and Mexico. The differences among the colonists 
and the army are accentuated to a perilous point — 
Oiiate's voyage to La Quivira — Fatal outcome of the 
differences — The King grants Onate and all his people 
the title of Hijosdalgos — Onate crowns his voyage of con- 
quest with a prosperous trip to the Gulf of California 
and the Foundation of the City of Santa Fe 233-248 

Book 111. 

Chapter I. — The new Governor, Don Pedro de Peralta, 
assumes the reins of the government — Fr. Alonzo Pineda 
arrives as Commissary of the Franciscans and as suc- 
cessor to Father Fr. de Escobar— Pr. Estevan Perea 
succeeds Fr. Alonzo de Pineda — Not known whether Don 
Pedro de Peralta governed to 1620 — Nor is it known who 
were his successors — New difficulties break out afresh 
among the Political and Religious authorities-Father 
Fr. Ger6nimo de Zarate Salmeron relieves Fr. Estevan 
Perea — Indian conversions continue- — The Spanish set- 
tlements increase — New Mexico is raised to a Custodia 
and Father Benavides is assigned as tirst Custodian — 
New Mexico is given another governor — History of New 
Mexico by Fr. De Benavides — Names of the Governors. 
249-257 

Chapter II. — The murder of Fathers Arvide and Letrado and 
poisoning of Farther Parras — The murder of Governor 
Rosas — Pefialoza and the Priests — Trip of Peiialoza to 
Mexico — He is punished as a blasphemer — His journey 



CONTENTS. 21 

to France and England — He betrays his Sovereign — Up- 
rising of the Indians ... 258-265 

Chapter III. — Indian uprising and departure of Otermin — 
Headed to Paso del Norte — What follows is taken from the 
account of Otermin which is found published as Ap- 
pendix III. Volume 1 of Villagra on page eleven et seq. 

266-271 

Chapter IV.— First entry of De Vargas 272-291 

Chapter V, — Second entry of De Vargas— First taking of 
Santa Fe- Faithful Juan Ye discovers the conspiracy- 
Terrible struggle — Final taking of the Villa — The faith- 
ful Pecos Indians — Fr. Farfan asks for help — The parti- 
tion and cultivation of the land begins. New uprisings 
— Surrender of the Apaches — Letter to Father Farfan — 
Hostile encounters continue — Diplomacy of De Vargas 
towards the rebels — Arrival of Father Farfan and his 
his colonists — Campaign against the Teguas — Founding 
of Santa Cruz de la Canada — Another uprising — Death 
of 7 priests and 20 soldiers — New Governor — Charges 
against De Vargas 295-3 1 6 

Book IV. 

Chapter I. — Government administration of Don Pedro Rodri- 
guez de Cubero — Arrival of De Vargas — His Govern- 
ment lasts a short time — Dies four months after his 
arrival — His last will and testament — Francisco Cuervo 
y Valdez — Founding of Albuquerque — Chacon succeeds 
Valdez — Governor Chacon and his government adminis- 
tration — Don Feliz Martinez and his government — Epoch 
of Governor Antonio Velarde y Cosio — The Franciscans 
establish Public Schools (1717)— Administration of Bus- 
tamante — Trade with the French — French Colony — First 
visit of a Bishop — Jesuit Fathers — Accusation against 
Bustamante — Incumbency of Governors Mendoza, D. 
Manuel Porfilio Urrizola— Collados y Rabal — Capuchin 
D. Tomas Velez Capuchin — Don Manuel Portillo Urrizo- 
la— Tomas Velez Capuchin Cubero names "Galisteo" 
(1697) — French expedition (1698) — Cubero designates the 
Pueblo of the Queres with the name of "San Jose de La 
Laguna" (1699) 817-332 



22 CONTENTS. 

Chapter II — Administration of Mendinueta— A Historical 
Flood and Innundation— Harmony between the Civil and 
Religious Authorities — Treaty with the Comanches— 
Historical account by Mendinueta — Other events — Har- 
mony between the government and the church — A priest 
discovers Salt Lake — Change in the form of government 
— Trivol and Anza — D. Manuel Flon is appointed Gover- 
nor, but does not assume the government — Don Fernando 
de La Concha arrives — Abiquiu, Ojo Caliente, Embudo, 
Chama andSantaCruz are again settled by the Spaniards. 
333-344 

Chapter III — Historical events that were recorded between 
the years 1794-l^il4^ — Fruits and advantages from the 
goverment of governnors Fernando Chacon, Alencaster 
and Manrique— First arrival of North American mer- 
chants — Election of Don Pedro Bautista Pino to the 
Spanish Congress — His "History"' and interesting ad- 
dress 345-360 

Chapter IV — Names of the governors continued — End of the 
Spanish and beginning of the Mexican government — 
Two Colleges are established — The First Provincial De- 
putation — Visit of the Bishop of Durango — The First 
Newspaper — Bent's Port — Incoming of Governor Perez — 
His Inaugural Address — The revolution of the Chima- 
yoes — Death of Governor Perez and other officials — 
Patriotism of Armijo and other citizens — Death of the 
Insurrecto Chieftains — Triumph of Law and Justice — 
Other incidents — Armijo assumes the command of the 
forces — The Insurrectos surrender — Imprisonment and 
punishment of their chiefs — A sedition breeder escapes 
at Santa Cruz — Issues an Insurrection Proclamation — 
Claims made by American Merchants 361-393 

Chapter V. — Armijo makes a report to the government — Is 
confirmed in office— Is suspended temporarily — Lejanza 
and Chaves act ad Interim — The government system is 
changed^Custom Duties are established at Taos — Dis- 
covery of the "Placer Viejo"' and other minerals — Expan- 
sion of Mercantile Trade — American Consulate and U. 
S. Commercial Agency in Santa Fe — Texas Invasion — 



CONTENTS. 23 

McLeod surrenders with all his Force— Other Texan 
Expeditions 394-409 

Chapter VI. — The Utes attack Governor Martinez— Heroism 
of the Governor's wife— Last Election of Senators and 
members of the Mexican Congress and Territorial Otii- 
cial, Under Mexican Rule— Invasion of the American 
Army— March of the American Army— Taking of Santa 
Fe— Organization of the New Government — Formal Ap- 
pointment of Officers — An Anti-American Pronounce- 
ment — Bent starts for Taos and is assassinated — Others 
die with him — Padre Martinez saves an American — And 
the families of the murdered men — Murders in Mora 
and Las Vegas — Measures are taken for the punish- 
ment of the rebels — Surrender of the Taos Indians and 
execution of their chief — Assault and punishment of the 
Mora Insurrectos — End of the War with Mexico — 
Historical letter from California 410-452 

Chapter VII. — Price assumes charge of the government — 
The people are split into factions — A convention meets 
and adopts a memorial to Congress asking for a Terri- 
torial government — Visit of Cure Ortiz to repatriate 
Mexicans— Formal organization of opposing parties — 
Organization of a State Government— Election of Senators 
— Protest of Governor Monroe — Alvarez receives bad 
news — The Territorial Government organized — Military 
yields power to Civil Government — First Delegate to 
Congress 453-468 

Chapter VIII. — Richard H. Weightman directly elected by 
the people — Energetic defense of the people of New 
Mexico and Civil Government — Correct description of 
the lamentable political condition of New Mexico in those 
years — Alvarez is and is not governor for three days — 
Lane takes possession of a portion of Mexican Territory 
claimed by the State of Chihuahua — Other matters of 
importance — Slavery in New Mexico 469-498 

Chapter IX.— Agriculture and industry— Geography, Topo- 
graphy and Boundaries— Live Stock industry— Wars 
—Civil War— War with the Apache and Navajo In- 
dians — War with Spain — Church — Indians— Mineral 
Branch— Copper, Gold and Silver— Missions and Mis- 



24 CONTENTS. 

sionaries — The Franciscans — Orphan Asylum in Santa 
Fe — Jesuits of Albuquerque, Silver City, Gallup, Las 
Vegas and Deming 499.532 

Chapter X.— Primitive Teaching — Private School and First 
Law about Teaching — Private Colleges — Message of Gov- 
ernor Vigil — First School for Teaching English — Bishop 
Lamy — Second School for the Teaching of English — 
School for Girls— Sisters of Loretto — Sisters of Loretto 
Incorporated^ — Real Estate and Irnprovements of the 
Sisters and their value— Christian Brothers — The 
Brothers start for New Mexico — Opening of the College 
— New Directors — Brothers Geramius and Domiciano — 
New Director and New Era — The good the College has 
done — Silver Jubilee — Golden Jubilee — Sistersof Charity 
— Incoming of the Jesuits — Their Missions and pedagog- 
ical labors — Las Vegas College — Parochial School at 
Santa Fe — Public Schools — Superintendent of Public 
Instruction — County School Superintendents — School 
Districts and Municipalities — Counties of the State 
— Number of pupils, funds — Sectarian Private Schools — 
Pedagogical Institutions of the State of New Mexico — 
Additional Funds — School for Indians — Summary — 
Penal Institutions and otherwise — Population of New 
Mexico at diiferent epochs 533-c63 

Chapter XL — History of the Commerce and the Economical 
Conditions of New Mexico, from the early times of its 
history to the year 1812, as written by Don Pedro Bau- 
tista Pino, who was deput}' of New Mexico to the Cortes 
of Spain from 1810 to 1820, and included in his "His- 
torical and Statistical Notes Concerning the Ancient 
Province of New Mexico,'" which he presented to the 
Cortes of Spain at Cadiz in the year 1812, and to which 
are added an "Addition" made to said "Historical Notes" 
by Don Antonio Barreiro in 1832, and Don Jose Agustin 
de Escudero in 1843, both attorneys in Mexico, all of 
which is found from pages 71 to 82, inclusive, of said 
"Historical and Statistical Notes'" of said Pedro Bautista 
Pino, and the Statistics from the year 1812, to our days — 
Commerce under the American Government — Incor- 



CONTENTS. 25 

porated Corporations for Pecuniary purposes — Banking 
Conditions — Historical Society — Santa Fe Trail — Etc. 
564-594 

Chapter XII.— Grants or Donations of Land — Government 
Officials and Administration of Justice — Under the Mex- 
ican Government — Under the American Government — 
Tribunals of Justice — Sheriff and Constables— Political 
Department — Legislation and the Executive Governors 
under Military Appointment — Under Organic Law — 
Secretaries of State — Chief Justices of the Supreme 
Court — Delegates in Congress — Territorial Legislatures 
and their Presiding Officials — Bar Association — Celebra- 
tion of Marshall's Anniversary — Statehood Question, 
Struggle and Admission into the Union 595-644 

Chapter XIII. — Historical Chain composed of diverse events 
--The Navajoes — Pounding of Puerto de Luna — Trouble- 
some times v^'ith the Indians — Lincoln County War — A 
Phenomenal Swindler — Visit of a distinguished Mexican 
General — The Rock of El Moro — Tragedy Aubrey — 
Weightman — Aubrey's death— Tragical death of Beck 
and Gorman 645-656 

Appendix I. — Historical Memorial of Fr. Benavidez to the 
King of Spain 657-714 

Appendix II. — History of New Mexico by Father Frejes 
_ 715 722 

Appendix III. — Names of the Franciscan Fathers who died 
as Martyrs in New Mexico 723-726 

Appendix IV. — Photographs and Sketches published in 

Alphabetical order 727 

Illustrations of Public Buildings, Rare Documents, such 

as letters from men who figured prominently in the Historj^ 

of New Mexico, Newspaper and Photograveurs of Prelates 

and other Distinguished Historical Characters are Distri- 



"■o ' 



buted through the Work. 



'r^ 



Alphabetical Index — Testimonials. 



THE LATEST UP-TO-DATE HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

We Must Be Candid — Facts Shown By This Work. 



Cabeza de Vaca did visit New Mexico. — Espejo did not give 
the Territory its name, Brother Ruiz did. — Coronado did not 
visit spot where Santa Fe is located. — After his return to 
Mexico (1542) no Spaniards except two Friars and a Portu- 
guese remained. — One of the Friars and the Portuguese 
went to Gran Quivira and the other to Cicuye (Pecos). 
— Santa Fe was not settled by the Spaniards prior to 1605. — 
It is the second oldest city in the United States. — First 
settlement in New Mexico byOiiate in 1598. — Tiguex was the 
name of the Pueblos near where Bernalillo now stands. — 
Permanent conquest by De Vargas consummated December 
30, 1693, etc., etc., etc.— The Author. 



ILLUSTRATIONS AND PHOTOS OF HISTORICAL CHARAC- 
TERS, AS THEY APPEAR IN THE BOOK. 



Pajje. 
Author's pictu re . 1 

Cano, Ignacia ''^0 

Church of San Miguel 31 

The Palace of the Governors 32 

Hand tabulated census of Santa Fe (in 1820) 47 

Capitol of New Mexico -48 

Bishop Jose Antonio Laureano Zubiria 89 

Archbishop Don Juan Bautista Lamy 90 

Archbishop Juan B. Salpointe 129 

Aichbishop P. Chapelle 13L 

Archbishop Peter Bourgade 139 

Archbishop J. B. Pitaval 141 

The Tombs of King Ferdinand and Isabella 1 07 

Captain Gaspar de Villagra, picture of 191 

Facsimile of title page of Villagrd's ''Historia"" 144 

Royal Pantheon "Escorial," Tombs of Spanish Kings 216 

Fac-simile of title page of Rev. A. J. Martinez's "Expo 

sicion" -oO 

Last election of officials under the Mexican government. .280 

State ballot for election, 1851 282 

A rmijo, Manuel, Gov 362-364 

Bent, Chas.,Gov 416 

Col. Kit Carson -11" 

Loretto Academy, Santa Fe 466 

St. Michael's College, Santa Fe 468 

Guadalupe church, Santa F6 . 497 

Immaculate Conception, Church of 448 

Machebeuf, Bishop 5^9 

Eguillon, Peter, Rev o45 

Mandalari, A. M. S. J., Rev 546 

Edwards, Brother 5^4 

Truchard, Agustin, Rev 578 

San Felipe de Neri -"^"^ 

Fourchegii, Antonio, Right Rev., 589 

Deaf and Dumb School 6C5 

School for the Blind 607 



2i> LIST OF SKETCHES. 

Page. 

College of Agriculture 619 

Military Institute 621 

Spanish-American School 644 

School of Mines 64b 

Universit}^ of New Mexico 649 

Parochial School, Santa Fe 652 

Normal School, Las Vegas 654 

High School, Santa Fe 659 

Proclamation of J. B. Vigil 664 

Defouri, J. H. Rev 676 

Santa Fe in 1860 685 

Santa Fe in 1867 687 

Santa Fe in 1876 705 

Santa Fe in 1912 707 

Cathedral, Santa Fe 709 

Sanitarium, Santa Fe 718-720 



"o"^ 



Abbott, E. C 

Baca, Roman A . 

Baca, Roman L 

Baca, J. Ma. and wife 

Baca, Benito 

Baca, Eleuterio 

Baca, Tomas C. de 

Baca, Ezequiel C de 

Benedict, Kerby 

Barela, Casimiro 737- 

Bursum, H. O 

Chacon, Albino 

Chacon, Rafael 741, 742- 

Chacon, Eusebio 

Chavez, Jacobo 

Delgado, Manuel 

Delgado, Felipe S. , 

Delgado, Juan Pab o 

Delgado, Felipe B 



LIST OF SKETCHES. 29 

Page. 

Fernandez, J. E 750 

Griffith, John E 751 

Jaffa, Nathan 752 

Lucero, Antonio 753 

Leahy, Jeremiah 754 

Laughhn, N. B 755 

Luna, Solomon 756 

Long, E. V 757-758 

Larrazolo, O. A 759 

Martinez, Fehx 760-761 

Martinez, Candelario 762 

McFie, J. R 763 

Martinez, A. J. Rev 761 

Martinez, Malaquias 765 

Miera, E. A 766 

Montoya, Nestor 767 

McDonald, W. C 768 

Otero, Manuel R 769 

Ortiz, Modesto C 770 

Ortiz, y Alarid, Gaspar 771 

Perez, Demetrio 772 

Prince, L. B 773 

Prichard, Geo. W 774 

Pope, W. H 775 

Pino, Nicolas 776 

Romero, Margarito 777 

Renehan, A. B 778 

Read, Alejandro 779 

Read, Larkin G 780 

Read, J. B. ..'. 781 

Spiess, Chas. A 782 

Seligman, Bernard 783 

Seligman, Arthu r 784 

Staab, Abraham 785 

St. Vrain, Ceran 786 

St. Vrain, B 787 

Tompkins, R. H 788-789 

Twitchell, R. E 790 

Valdez, Santiago 791 

Walter, P. A. F 792. 



Dona Ignacia Cano. 



• 


i 


r\ 


• 




1 


^0/e^ Ht^Tr 






1 






' 


■1 


^v ^„. 


■ 


Mb 




■ 


il^ 


Mks 






2 






|y 


l^^B^&^^l 



liona I triiiii-iii < 'aiio. 



Dofia Ignacia Cano, was the daughter of Don Ignacio Cano, first 
disco verei" and one of the grantees of the famous Ortiz Grant, in 
southern Santa Fe county and Doiia Maria Quiros. Slie married Mr. 
Benjamin F. Read in 184i). Mr. Read came to New Mexico with the 
American Army in 1846. Doiia lynacia became a widow in 1854 and 
afterwards married Mateo Ortiz. P^'rom her first marriage three sons 
survived lier: Alexander. Benjamin (author of this work) and 
Larkin G. Read. From her second marriage three sons and one 
daughter survived lier. She died in Santa Fe, May 5, 1878. 




( 'Inu'cli 



.,f S=m Mi^uH Hailt ,,y . mat.^in..o^ Now rs.,! ms < Mk-pH by tlu- Christ h.n 
Mrotliers ot Saint MicliacIsC olletrc. 




The Paluee of the Governors as it Appeared on the Day of the Inansrurjitioii 
of the First State Governor January 15, 1912. 



This Palace was built by the Spaniards between 1606 and 
1608, by Onate, who effected the tirst conquest and estab- 
lished the first settlement in New Mexico, 1598-9. It w-as 
inhabited by all the Spanish governors — 1608 to 1821 and by 
all the Mexican governors from 1821 to 1846, when New 
Mexico became part of the United States, and by every 
American governor from 1846 to 1910. It is now used by 
the Historical Society and the Archaeological Society, 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY 

OF 

NEW MEXICO. 



BOOK L 



CHAPTER 1. 



Prehistoric Times — Mithological Hypotheses of Historians in Regard to 
the Origin and Civilization of the Indigenous Races — The Aztecs 
and their Empire. 



The mysterious origin of the Aborigenes that peopled the 
portion of the American Continent occupied by the Repubhc 
of Mexico and the other Repubhcs of Central and South 
America, the Territory which till the year 1848 had formed a 
part of the Mexican Republic, namely: What is known 
as the States of Texas, California, Utah, Arizona and New 
Mexico, and part of the State of Colorado is today, as 
enigmatical as it was at the time when the Europeans first 
set foot on the virgin shores of the Western Continent. The 
immense importance hidden in this secret regarding the 
Aztec Empire pre-eminently surpasses, in historical interest, 
all the legends and traditions recorded in the history of the 
other civilized countries of the world in reference to the 
origin, beginning, and civilization of the nomadic and station- 
ery tribes of their aborigenes, respectively. Nor can the 
nations of South America conquered by the Pizarros and 
Almagro, nor the nations and tribes of North American 
Indians compare with the Mexican Indians. Their almost 
fabulous wealth, both in gold and the other known metals, as 
well as in precious stones; their picturesque topography; the 



34 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

mildness of their admirable climate, as described by famous 
writers and poets; their astonishing progress in the arts of 
painting and architecture, and in the sciences of government, 
astronomy, and agriculture, as displayed before their con- 
querors, thereby evidencing a state of civilization so advanced 
as to cause Cortes himself, rapt in the wondering contempla- 
tion of it, to exclaim that not even in his beloved Spain could 
such beauty be found; all these things, together with the 
circumstance, still more marvelous, of havmg been found 
there very evident traces of some knowledge of Christianity, 
such as the sign of the cross, the sacritice of holocausts to 
the Deity, the communion with bread — symbolic of our 
Christian Communion — all these things 1 repeat, have inspired 
and encouraged archaeologists, geologists, ethnologists, and 
historiographers to dedicate a great portion of their lives to 
the task of unfathoming that bottomless abyss which 
envelops the origin and source of that race, and the means 
employed by that mystical people in an industrial and econo- 
mical development so intellectually astounding. 

Whence came they? Are they, perhaps the descendants of 
the primitive Egyptian race? Are they, perchance, the off- 
spring of the ten tribes of Israelites who came to people the 
Atlantis of Plato? To the solution of these questions a large 
number of learned men having given their studies and dedi- 
cated their lives without getting better results than mere 
conjectures, mere suppositions and nothing more. In our 
days we are as far from knowing, with moral certainty, the 
true answer to such questions, as were Cortes, Bernal Diaz, 
and the others who were the first ones to contemplate, with 
them, in their original beauty and singular primitive grand- 
eur the habits, customs, government system, grand archi- 
tecture and other great things which constituted the glory 
of the great empire of the Montezumas. 

The Author, being unwilling to deviate from the method 
which he has adopted, as a standard in his historical works, 
that is, of reproducing, as far as possible, the spirit and 
meaning of the original authors, will now procede to narrate, 
in the first place, the interpretations of some Anglo-Saxon 
and Anglo-American authors, and also of Mexican authors, 
touching the mystery we have been mentioning, leaving for 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 35 

the subsequent chapter all that relates t© the Indians of New 
Mexico. In this manner will the reader be able to form his 
own idea of the enigmatical problem. 

It is most certain that all writers of history, European as 
well as Anglo-American, who have written about the Con- 
quest of Mexico, have taken a large part of their information, 
either from the letters of Cortes to the King of Spain, or 
from the works of Father Gomara (who was a prelate in Spain, 
after the conquest of Cortes, but was never in Mexico,) or 
from the works of Bishop Bartolom^ de Las Casas, or from 
the accounts made by Bernal Diaz del Castillo, and Francisco 
Jaramillo. Mexican Historians, besides having the works 
of the authors quoted above, have also the works and tradi- 
tions of the old Aztec writers. 

Those writers who have based their works on the works of 
Gomara have repeated and reproduced the thousands of 
errors consigned in his works, for the reader should know 
that Gomara at the time of the conquest of Mexico was only 
nineteen .years of age (was born in 1510) and that, after 
Cortes had returned to Spain to remain thereuntil his death, 
was the time when Gomara entered the service of Cortes. 
He wrote his work on the conquest of Mexico in the year 
1540, or 19 years after the conquest and pacitication of 
Mexico. The numberless errors and ridiculous exaggera- 
tions of his work caused the King to condemn it and to pro- 
hibit its circulation. 

Bernal Diaz del Castillo was at that time Mayor of the City 
of Guatemala, and to him more than any one else is due the 
exposure of Gomara's fraud and the condemnation of his work. 
Similarly, to that circumstance is the world indebted for the 
great service Bernal Diaz rendered in its behalf in writing 
his "Historia Verdadera de la Conquista de la Nueva Espana," 
with that exactness wherewith he alone as an eye witness 
and as one of the conquerors could have written it, and with 
which he refuted Gomara and gave to the world the true 
history of that memorable episode. With these explanations 
let us now enter that labyrinth of suppose in what relates to 
prehistoric times etc., of the interesting aboriginal races 
which the Spanish Europeans found in Mexico taking up, in 
the first place, the theories (translations) of Anglo-Saxon and 



36 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Anglo-American authors. Prescott, speaking of the origin 
and civilization of the Mexican Indians, says: "When the 
Europeans landed for the tirst time on the coasts of 
America they almost came to believe that what they saw 
was another planet, as whatever they saw had not anything 
similar either in Europe or in any of the countries known to 
them." The unknown and exceedingly varied classes of 
plants and birds added to the very rare aspect, appearance, 
customs, and dress of the inhabitants, the exuberance and 
feracity of their fields made such an impression on the 
Europeans that they unhesitatingly and unanimously named 
the land "The New World."' — "Accustomed, as the Europeans 
were," says Prescott, (Vol. 3 p. 355) "to what they knew as 
matters of faith, that ail things came from one only Author, 
their surprise naturally increased with the mystery and 
origin of those human beings. " 

All the new attractions in what concerns vegetation and 
animals accommodate themselves to, and are susceptible of, 
interpretations that do not conflict with the laws of nature; 
but to meet with large groups of creatures similar, in all re- 
spects, to themselves; to tind them in such an advanced stage 
of civilization, and with notions, more or less extensive, of 
the principles of morality and religion, and versed almost to 
the highest degree of perfection in the fine arts; such a thing 
was, for the Europeans, an impenetrable mystery, and, such 
as it was for thera, it has ever been, and w'ill continue to be 
for all generations. The question then: "Whence came 
these inhabitants to AmericaV" remains unanswered. One of 
the celebrated geologists of the world, Lyell, asserts that 
canoes with savage Indians have been met with on the High 
Seas, and that it is probable that from the early periods of 
the world, many tribes came in canoes to America from Asia 
and Europe "If," says Lyell, "humanity as a whole, with the 
exception of but one family, should disappear from the face 
of the earth, and that only one family remained in either of the 
continents, or in Australia or any other island in the Pacific, 
we could well hope that its descendants, even if not as civil- 
ized as the inhabitants of the South Sea Islands, would very 
soon scatter, in tlie lapse of 3^ears, over the whole earth." All 
over the continent of the new world, its original inhabit 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 87 

tants were found divided in two classes, the semi-civilized 
and the savage class. This last one had no knowledge of 
society or domestic life. Its absolute occupation was hunt- 
ing, and its life, a wandering or nomadic one. The half- 
civilized tribes or nations were in a very advanced state of 
civilization, with well established systems of government. 
That condition of things is what neither the archaeologists, 
nor geologists, nor learned historians have been able to 
explain. Apparently, the only solution to those amphibio- 
logical questions, and the theory to which all learned men 
incline most is that the separation of human beings and 
their world-wide dispersion is due to the universal deluge. 
To that belief most of the civihzed nations of the world have 
ever adhered, and equally so the same thing, according to 
ethnologists, has been affirmed by the semi-civilized nations 
of the new world. The Aztecs established this fact with 
their traditions stating that there had been, in the early 
days of the world, a deluge, and that, out of all the inhabi- 
tants of the earth, at the time of the deluge, only two per- 
sons had escaped, male and female, the male being known 
among them by the name of Coxcox. The Aztecs had the 
faces of these two human beings drawn upon old canvasses 
on which w?s represented an immense sea which covered 
the whole of the earth except an unsubmerged mountain at 
the foot of which was a bark. Near the bark a dove ap- 
peared carrying placards in its bill upon which were found, 
written in hieroglyphics, emblems of all the languages of 
the world, and which the dove distributed among the chil- 
dren of Coxcox. The Spaniards found a great deal of like- 
ness between the religion of the Aztecs and the Christian 
religion. Besides what has already been said in this chap- 
ter, the Spaniards saw how the Aztecs received communion 
of bread made from corn and blood, which, after it had been 
consecrated by their priests, was distributed among the 
faithful who received it with much reverence and with the 
sincere belief that it was the identical body of their God. 
* 'They received it,"' Veytia and Acosta tell us, "with great 
reverence, humility and tears, saying they ate the flesh of 
their God." All historians declare that the rehgious prac- 
tices of the Aztecs and their conjectures with regard to 



38 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

their ancestral origin are, in many things, analogous to the 
biblical accounts of the Hebrew people. Compare, for in- 
stance, their departure from Aztlan, in pilgrimage, as far as 
Anahuac, (Mexico), with the departure of the Jews from 
Egypt, for the promised land. Along the way from Aztlan 
as far as Anahuac they had to make many and long journeys, 
setting up their camps very often and for along time in 
several places, just as the Jews did in their journeys in the 
desert. In examining their hieroglyphical characters, the 
learned have found a great deal of similarity between their 
maxims and the sentences of the sacred texts. Those co- 
incidences and analogies between the customs of the Aztecs 
and the biblical history of the Jews are attributed by many 
of the historians to diabolical mischief. 

The comments we have been making and the extracts from 
authors of other nationalities are sufficient matter for the 
reader to form for himself anideaofthemostlogical tendencies 
towards the establishment of the origin and source of the 
Aztecs. Weshall now consign the opinionsof Mexican authors 
that he may thus be able to reach a more reasonable conclu- 
sion, in so far as his intellectual capacities may enable him to 
attain it. Before referring, however, to the Mexican authors, 
the Author desires to quote the opinion of Bernal Diaz, who, 
as a companion of Cordova and Grijalva in their voyages to Yu- 
catan, and as a joint conqueror with Cortes subsequently, was 
able to observe better the situation ard condition of the 
Aztecs. Bernal Diaz tells us that the idols presented by the 
Indians to Hernandez Cordova (first discoverer in 1517 of the 
Peninsula of Yucatan) made him believe that they were old 
relics brought to this continent by the Hebrews. Regarding 
what Bernal Diaz observed, and what he heard from the lips 
of Emperor Montezuma, he tells us that, in the first interview 
between Cortes and Montezuma, Cortes wished to impress 
him with the divinity of the God of the Christians and the 
truth of the Catholic religion, and that Montezuma answered 
him in the following words: 

"Malinche, (name by which the Indians called Cortes) 
already have my ambassadors told me that they heard from 
your mouth what you are telling me. We had not answered 
to all that because we have always adored the same gods 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 39 

that we worship now, and they have been to us very kind. 
Yours may be so also. As to what you say of the creation 
of the world our beliefs are the sanie as yours. We also be- 
lieve that you and your people are the ones who were to 
come from the Levante to our lands." 

Let us now hear the writers from Mexico, many of them, 
undoubtedly, descendants of that heroic race which consti- 
tuted the Mexican Empire. In his "Biographies," Bruno F. 
Fabian gives us the history according to Mexican traditions, 
in these words: 

"Our country was, in very remote epochs, inhabited by 
divers tribes. Tradition, ever respectable, tells us that a 
race of giants was the first one to tread our territory. We 
admit those traditions by observing the enormous craneums, 
bones, and skeletons that were unearthed in Tlaxcala, Tex- 
coco, Tula, and California in different epochs, as well as a 
multitude of fossil remains of elephants and other animals 
of large corpulence. But be this as it may; what is to-day 
the Mexican Republic was primitively invaded by different 
tribes — among them the Mayas on the East invaded the pen- 
insula of Yucatan, and on the North the Toltecs led by a 
priest named Hueman. 

"This priest was the conductor of the Toltec tribe. He lived 
in the City of Huehnetlapallan, or Tlopallan, situated to the 
North of the Gila River, in Lower California, which belonged 
to the kingdom of Tollan. When that people had considerably 
increased there were disagreements with the chief of the 
Toltec kingdom. 

"Hueman, who loved liberty, advised his people to emigrate 
to other lands that might furnish them with the precious 
means of subsistence. As Hueman or Huermatzin (the man 
of the big hands, or the powerful), was a noble hearted man 
of character, v^ ho had always distinguished himself for his 
wisdom, the people obeyed him and undertook their march to 
better lands (544th year of the vulgar era). 

"They called him Hueman, the man of the big hands, 
because he was a benevolent man, and also because, in a 
neighboring pueblo of Mexico, he left, in certain black rocks, 
the picture and perfect stamp of his hands, as of white 
gypsum, which no one was able to erase. The legend also 



40 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

relates that on his way to Cholula, Hueman left the stamp of 
his hand in a rock, in crossing over a bridge and that, in 
remembrance of this, a pueblo was founded there called 
Tlamaco, which means rock of the hand. 

"During the pilgrimage of the Toltecs, Hueman led them 
with wise councils, encouraged them with his example, and 
taught them many useful things. They cultivated the fields 
all along the places which they passed, obtained in return 
abundant harvests, and founded cities and pueblos, the traces 
yet existing of those primitive times, as "Casas Grandes," in 
Chihuahua, preserved to this date as historical monuments. 

"As Hueman was also a priest it was believed that he 
interpreted Divine will, so it was that they continued their 
march whenever he commanded. After many years of 
pilgrimage they reached Jalisco, a land of fertility and mild 
climate; they remained there for eight years, then, followed 
their way to the South till they came to Guerrero, and finally 
they headed eastward as far as Tollantzingo, in the year 667 
where they thought of settling definitely. They built the City 
of Tula as a reminder of the name of their country. Tula is 
today one of the oldest cities in the new world. 

"Hueman was an astrologer who foretold the end of things, 
a benevolent man, large-hearted, who consecrated the whole 
of his life to the good of his people; he established the Toltec 
monarchy and gave it wise laws. 

"The Toltecs had nine kings. The second king made the 
*Teamoxtli', or Divine Book, which was a precious collection 
of paintings commemorative of the great historical events, 
such as the deluge, the confusion of tongues, the pilgrimage 
of those tribes, their laws, their maxims, ceremonies, and 
other interesting things. When Hueman died he foretold 
the destruction of his empire. 

"The Toltecs were tall, robust, and well formed, valiant and 
fond of liberty. They lived in well built stone houses sur- 
rounded by gardens. They were quite civilized, and had 
their artists, architects, physicians, and astronomers 

"Their dresses were made of cotton, and their sandals, of 
ixtle ornamented with emeralds, and feathers of various 
colors. Their weapons were arrows, clubs, slings and iron- 
edged sticks. 

"They worshipped the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars." 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 41 

LEGEND OF QUETZALGOATL OR GRACEFUL SERPENT. 



"After the establishment of the Toltec empire, more than 
900 years ago, there followed several remarkable events, 
among them, the appearance of a fantastic personage 
preaching the doctrine of Christ all over the Continent. 
According to the Toltecs he represented the evening star, 
and as soma historians affirm, he was a Christian bishop. 

"He was a tall, white, full-bearded man, with curly hairs, and 
had a magestic mien. He wore a long tunic reaching to the 
heels, adorned with many black and red crosses. 

"After wondering for many years he arrived at the City 
of Tula in 92*2, preaching the Christian religion. In all the 
puebloshe visited he erected temples for prayer and penance, 
ornamenting them with showy feathers, precious stones, 
gold and silver. He administered baptism, confession, and 
offered sacrifices of birds and small animals to the gods. He 
never consented to the offering of human sacrifices, such as 
the Toltecs were wont to do. 

"This fantastic personage of whom the Toltecs made a god 
was generally known by the name of Quetzalcoatl, which 
means, in Nahualt language, the graceful serpent. 

"During his stay with the Toltecs, he was very good and 
benevolent to them. When he came to the pueblos, the 
Toltecs received him with open arms; he taught them many 
useful things, showed them how to cultivate the fields and 
weave the cloth with more ease, and polish gold and silver; 
lastly he increased the knowledge of the Toltec people and 
improved the arts and industrips, displaying, in this manner, 
his love for the people to such a degree as to be acclaimed bj' 
them as their King and Supreme Priest. 

"In this exalted post he labored restlessly for the sup- 
pression of human sacrifices. These savage ceremonies 
consisted in cutting open the breasts of prisoners, pulling 
out their almost palpitating heart and offering them to their 
gods. 

"As Quetzalcoatl had ideas very opposite to the religion of 
the Toltecs, he naturally made for himself many enemies; 
and, having revolted against him, those who favored human 
sacrifices, cast him out of Tula and made him flee to Yucatan. 



42 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

"On his departure he announced the destruction of the 
empire. He said that white, bearded men, hke himself would 
come from the East and that they would be the lords of these 
kingdoms." 

This legend of Quetzalcoatl and his prophesies, whether 
true or not were preserved by the Toltec pueblos, and handed 
down from generation to generation, and from pueblo to 
pueblo; and such prophesies had a strong influence on the 
minds of the Aztecs at the time when the Spaniards came to 
conquer Mexico. 

Concerning the reign of queen Xochitl we take the account, 
written about it, by the Mexican author, Gregorio Torres 
Quintero, which is as follows:* 

QUEEN XOCHITL. 

In the seventh century of our era there came (it is not 
known whether from the North or the South) certain peoples 
of an advanced knowledge and customs. They settled in 
Tolan or Tulan, today Tula, in the State of Hidalgo, and 
founded a monarchy which lasted four centuries and a half. 

History Galls Them Toltecs. 

About the year 1001, a lord lived in Tolan called Papatzin, 
a relative to the monarch. Legendary lore (not history) attri- 
butes to him the discovery of the pulque, an extraction from 
the Mague}'. Astonished at, and satisfied with, his discov- 
ery, he wished the king to taste the beverage, and he resolved 
to send him a chocolate-cupful. 

Papatzin had a daughter, a damsel remarkable for her 
beauty, so exquisite that she was called Xochitl, that is, 
flower. She was the chosen one to carry the present to the 
king. 

When she arrived at the palace she was conducted to the 
audience hall. 

Tepancaltzin, such was the king's name, was on his throne, 
received the present with a pleasant smile, tasted the liquid 
and praised it; but his eyes could not be withdrawn from the 
beautiful face of the little girl, who humbly abashed would 
not raise her eyes fixed on the floor. A violent and fatuous love 



*Fabians: "Bio'g's de los Heroes de la Independencia. " 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 43 

was kindled in the monarcii's breast who conceived the plan 
of stealing the damsel; so he sent a reward to the discoverer 
commanding him to send him more pulque. 

A few days after, when Xochitl brought him another supply, 
she was detained at the palace. — Go and tell Papatzin, said 
ttie king, that, interested in his daughter's fate, I have re- 
solved to keep her at the palace where she shall be educated 
by wise matrons. With the message he also sent great riches. 

"Sometime after Xochitl became the mother of a child who 
was named Meconetzin, that is to say, Son of the Maguey, 
which later on he changed for that of Topiltzin. Papatzin 
was always imagining that his daughter was receiving a 
zealous education at the palace, but not having seen her for 
three years, rumors reached his ears of what was really 
going on. Disguising himself as a peasant he went to the 
palace in which Xochitl dwelt, penetrated into the gardens, 
and there, after a little, discovered her with a babe in her 
arms. "Does the king, then," he asked her, "keep you as 
his wet-nurse?" 

Blushingly she confessed to him that the child was hers. 
In a rage the offended father went to the king to demand ex- 
planation of her dishonor. Tepancaltzin succeeded in appeas- 
ing him making him many promises, among others, that of 
marrying Xochitl after he became a widower, and of placing 
her son on the throne. Everything was faithfully fultilled, 
Xochitl became queen and her son king. 

But the elevation to the throne of that prince, born outside 
the pale of matrimony, brought unpleasantness among the 
relatives, who believed themselves entitled, with better right 
to the heirship of the power. 

At that time the kingdom was troubled by religious revo- 
lution on account of the presence in Tolan of a mysterious, 
white bearded man named Quetzalcoatl. Topiltzin in the 
end was a bad monarch. On account of his example good 
custom became relaxed and the ancient virtue disappeared. 

Civil war soon showed its terrible mien. Some caciques 
from Jalisco who believed themselves with right to the throne, 
appeared with large armies and a very sanguinary struggle 
ensued. 



44 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Tepancaltzin and Xochitl were still living, and in spite of 
their advanced years, they came out to the defense of their 
son, but both died battle fighting in the first ranks. 

TOPILTZIN FLED. 

The conquerors, killed the inhabitants, famine and 
epidemics came, and so many calamities and disasters put 
an end to the Toltec Empire which never again rose from its 
ruins. 

We shall now close this chapter with an account of the 
foundation of Tenochtitlan, or the real Mexican Empire by 
the Aztecs, reproducing the words of the erudite Mexican 
writer, Emilio Rodriguez. With this interesting legend the 
reader shall have been treated to the choicest selection of 
all the celebrated authors who wrote concerning those 
countries, and who have given to the world the only thing 
they have been able to find out, after long years of painful 
study, regarding the origin of the founders of the great 
empire which so astounded its conquerors. Let Rodriguez 
speak: 

"Man3^ years ago several tribes left Aztlan, a pueblo 
situated to the North of the Gulf of California. Among them 
came the Aztec, or Mexican race, led by a learned priest 
whose name was Tenoch, and whom the Aztecs loved tenderly 
because he taught them many useful things. He w^as a 
benevolent, large-hearted, energetic, and courageous man. 
All rendered him a cuasi-religious worship. He was a 
genuine patriarch. 

"They brought along with them a stone idol, Huitzilopotchli, 
god of war, and, in their long pilgrimage, they always obeyed 
the commands of the god, as made known to them by Tenoch, 
chief and priest of the tribe. They undertook a pilgrimage 
which lasted nearly 200 years; and, although they stopped in 
some places, where they planted corn and erected buildings, 
they abandoned them in search of others, which they also 
left, until they reached the valley of Mexico, where other 
tribes had already settled, — such as the Chichimecas, in 
Texcoco, the Tecpanecas, in Atzacapozalco, the Colhuas, in 
Ameca, and the Chalcas and Xochimilcas. in their respective 
pueblos. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 45 

"The Aztecs arrived at the hill of Chapultepec and were 
enchanted at the sight of the exuberant forests of "Ahue- 
huetes"' which surround it, of the mild climate and abund- 
ance of chase, all of which jointly invited them to settle in 
that delightful spot. 

"They had hardly commenced the building of the temple 
for their god, when the Colhuas, with other allied tribes, 
surprised them and made them prisoners. Their Aztec 
chief, Tenoch, (which means cactus on rock), realizing the 
numerical superiority of the conquerors advised his people 
to submit, to bear in silence the ignominy of slavery in or- 
der to acquire sufficient strength so as to accept the strug- 
gle when the time of emancipation should come. 

"The Aztecs, through their great respect for their priest, 
at once submitted obediently to the Colhuas, who gave them 
for their habitation a place thenceforth called Tizapan. 

"There they dwelt for several years until the Xochimilcas, 
on one occasion, declared war against the Colhuas. 

"The latter asked help from the Mexicans, and then it was 
that Tenoch thought of helping, while at the same time he 
determined to terrorize them into giving his people their 
liberty. 

"The Aztecs presented themselves at the battle field, each 
carrying a basket and a knife, as their only weapons, wisely 
advised by their chief Tenoch not to kill the prisoners they 
might make, but to cut oif their right ears and gather them 
in their baskets. 

"After the defeat of the Xochimilcas, the Aztecs appeared 
before the king of the Colhuas showing him and offering him 
his prisoners, that is, the baskets containing the ears. The 
king of the Colhuas was astonished, as well as were his 
people, at the sight of so many ears. In addition the Aztecs 
carried to Tizapan four prisoners in order to sacrifice them in 
a feast to their god Huitzilopotchli. They also asked on that 
day an offering, from the Colhuan king, worthy of their god 
so as to make the ceremony more solemn. The later sent 
them a dead bird wrapped in a dirty rag; the Aztecs suffered 
in silence that unheard of outrage. They threw away the 
offering of the king, and placed on the altar in its stead, some 
fresh herbs and a knife made of ixtle, as symbols of the 



46 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

terrible vengeance they would take in the venturesome days 
they were expecting to cooae. 

King Colhua, who had been invited, attended the feast, and, 
in his presence, they sacrificed the captive prisoners by 
cutting open their breasts and drawing out their palpitating 
hearts in order to offer them in the shrine of their god. This 
display of cruelty terrorized even more the king of the Colhuas 
who decided to grant the Aztecs their liberty. They continued 
their pilgrimage, but not forgetting the offense done their god 
by the Colhuas they swore vengeance on them. 

''They demanded from King Colhua a daughter in order to 
install her as the priestess of their temple and mistress of 
their gods. The king acceded to this solicitude, yielded 
his daughter, who was taken amid great solemnities to be 
deified. They invited King Colhua for the day of the celebra- 
tion of the feast, who, with the nobles of his kingdom, 
appeared on the appointed day, carrying along valuable 
offerings; but on going to offer them to Huitzilopotchli, 
he saw at the foot of the idol, by the sinister light of the 
torches, a priest covered with his daughter's skin; the 
Mexicans had flayed her in order to comply with their oaths 
of revenge. The king, in a fit of rage, persecuted them, and 
the Aztecs took refuge among the reeds that grew in the small 
islands of the lake. Amid their despair, crushed down by 
hunger and always pursued by the Colhuas, they were on the 
point of surrendering, when one night the god spoke to the 
priest saying: 'In the middle of the lake a cactus has grown 
and is so large and leafy that an eagle has his nest in it; go 
and look for him at sunrise and you will find him eating the 
most beautiful and graceful birds. There shall you build the 
city."" 

"The Aztecs began their march the next day, and they saw 
that from the middle of the lake a fountain of limpid water 
shot forth and, upon a cactus that grew on a rock, beheld the 
eagle; there the priest decided to build the city which he 
called Tenochtitldn (City of Tenoch.) 

"By building stockades, occupying the small islands, and 
filling up with earth the spaces between, they succeeded in 
making the ground firm. They first erected the temple to 
Huitzilopotchli, the teocalli of their god, and then constructed 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 4i 

their huts around it, out of reeds and "tules'' from the lake, 
such being the only materials they could then obtain, and 
lastly they divided their city into four wards in the year 
1325. Such was the birth of the city which is to-day the 
capital of the Mexican Republic — an imperishable work due 
to the rash boldness of that handful of valiant Aztecs, and to 
the constancy and energy of that intrepid prudent chief.'' 
The Spaniards after the conquest, forgot the name of the 
Tenochtitlan and called Mexico, "New Spain." 

In the next chapter we shall speak of the Aborigenes of 
New Mexico, that is, of their origin and beginning. 




This hand tabulated census Is the offlclal census of the only two wards which made the City of Santa Fe 
in 1820. It was taken by Judge Jose Ignaclo Ortiz. It shows a total population of 1175 souls, of which 704 
were unmarried, 3it2 married and 79 widows and widowers— The original is in my possession— The Afthok. 



CHAPTER II 



The Indigenes of New Mexico — What Is Gathered From Their Tra- 
ditions Regarding Their Origin and Beginning — Discovery of 
America — Empire of the Montezumas — Conquest of Mexico — 
Cortes and Cuahutemoc. 

In the preceding chapter we spoke of the origin, begin- 
ning and civilization of the Aztecs; now we shall treat of the 
origin, beginning and civilization of the aborigines of New 
Mexico. Just as Cordova, Grijalva and Hernan Cortes met 
in Yucatan and Mexico with an empire of a civilized, indi- 
genous population, in like manner, the first explorers and 
conquerors of New Mexico found there half-civilized indi- 
genes and nomadic tribes of savage Indians. It is true that 
the half-civilized indigenes of New Mexico were not consti- 
tuted in an empire or any sort of government that embraced 
them all, as were the Aztecs in Mexico when Cortes con- 
quered their empire, and the Peruvians and the other In- 
dians of South America when their mcas were conquered by 
the Pizarros and Almagro; nevertheless, they lived in well 
formed communities, dwelling in adobe houses, and each 
community having its own unique system of government. 
They tilled their lands and subsisted from the products 
thereof, from hunting and tishing, dressed in garments 
made of cotton cloth and wool; in short, their history shows 
that on the north of Anahuac, or the Empire of the Monte- 
zumas, they were the most civilized Indians inhabiting the 
prairies and valleys in these regions. One of the points 
which neither historians nor ethnologists have been able to 
unravel, not to mention the futility of their efforts to clear 
up the question of their origin and beginning, is as to 
whether or not the indigenes of New Mexico are of the 
same race, origin and beginning as the Aztecs, Toltecs and 
Mayas. Of that point we shall presently speak. 

The Author does not believe that the indigenes of New 
Mexico, whether we regard the semi-civilized peoples, the 
savages or the nomadic tribes, had in the least anything in 



50 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

common with the indigenes of Mexico, except, to be sure, 
the common origin (>t mankind, Adam and Eve. No simil- 
arity whatever has been found, either in their customs, reli- 
gious beliefs or their idioms. We have already seen, in the 
preceding chapter, that, according to their traditions and 
the Mexican historians, the Mayas, the Toltecs, and the 
Aztecs were the ones that peopled the valleys and prairies 
which formed afterwards the immense and wealthy empire ot 
Queen Xochitl, that this empire was subsequently conquered 
by the Aztecs, and that the Aztecs were the founders of the 
vast empire of Montezuma. We have already seen, also, that 
the Mayas arrived at the Peninsula of Yucatan coming from 
the East; that from the North, the Toltecs and the Aztecs 
went. Nothing more then is necessary than a brief acquaint- 
ance with the geography of the Americas and a very simple 
examination of the map of the Western Hemisphere in order 
to realize that none of the wandering tribes that peopled 
Mexico could have been descended from the indigenes of New 
Mexico. A legend, invented some few years ago, is extant to 
the effect that Montezuma I, mounted en an enormous eagle, 
had conducted his people from New Mexico to the Valley of 
Mexico; but that is all a myth, and only silly persons can 
believe such nonsense. 

The Author of this work has studied very carefully the 
various volumes of the erudite writer Hubert Howe Bancroft 
which he dedicates, in his very interesting work, entitled 
"Bancroft's Works," to the history of the indigenous races of 
the Pacitic States, "Native Races of the Pacific States,"' and 
he has also consulted and examined several of the authors to 
whom Bancroft refers, without having ever been able to arrive 
at any other conclusion than the one already expressed; that 
is, that the more one endeavors to fathom the mystery that 
envelops the origin of the first inhabitants who set foot on 
the Americas, the greater becomes the resultant confusion. 
With a desire, however, that the reader may know the theories 
of the writers who have busied themselves more extensively 
with the story of the aborigenes of New Mexico he will present 
here a brief summary of what they have related, and in the 
subsequent chapters the reader shall read the accounts given 
by the first explorers, Alvar Nuflez Cabeza de Vaca and those 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 51 

who followed him, and in this manner he shall be able to 
compare the judgment of those writers with the observations 
made by those who were the tirst eye witnesses of the primi- 
tive conditions of the indigenes of those times. 

Bancroft tells us that the Pueblo Indians (for so were they 
first named) are, rather than any of the other Indian nations, 
the real American tribes, basing his belief in the fact that, 
even to our own day, they are to be found living in the same 
localities in which the Spaniards found their ancestors; that 
they still live and dress in the same fashion, as their fore- 
fathers lived and dressed, when New Mexico was discovered; 
and that their dwelling houses are of the same identical form 
and architecture as the ones occupied by their said ancestors. 
Bancroft admits however, that there are many who refuse 
to believe that the Mayas, the Toltecs, and the Aztecs, in 
spite of their superior civilization, were in the early times of 
their coming, more cultured than the Pueblo Indians, and that 
not withstanding the very radical differences in their cus- 
toms, idioms and culture, insi-t in maintaining that the said 
indigenes of New Mexico were the tirst who set foot on this 
soil, and that the Mayas, the Toltecs, and the Aztecs, who 
afterwards emigrated to Mexico, sprang from them. 

The learned writers who thus adhere to the theory that 
the Aztecs had their origin in New Mexico and Arizona, that 
they were the descendants of the Pueblo Indians, that, at the 
time of the emigration of the Aztecs, their ancestors remain- 
ed in New Mexico and Arizona forming themselves as the 
years went by, into pueblos or communities, give, as proofs 
of their arguments, the ruins and rehcs which are observed 
and met with, at every step, in the desert valleys, and 
mountains of New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Utah; but, 
in the opinion of the Author^of this work, their arguments do 
not bear them out very well when compared with what Ban- 
croft tells us in his "Native Races." Referring to said ruins 
and relics Bancroft says: "It is very difficult for me to con- 
ceive a greater and more essential difference than the one 
existing between the buildings constructed by the New 
Mexican Indians and those erected by the Indians of Mexico 

and Central America" I do not wish to be understood as 

affirming that it may not be possible that the Aztecs were not, 



52 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

thousands of years ago, of an identical race as the native 
born New Mexicans, as I have faith in the great changes of 
ages, and in how those changes affect human beings; not at 
all, I simply assert that it is manifestly absurd to declare 
that the ruins alluded to had been the work of the Aztecs at 
the time of their departure on their emigration without these 
ruins conserving any semblance to the buildings found in 
Anahuac" (Mexico). We have now seen in concrete form the 
opinions of Bancroft and of those who differ from him; let us 
now hear the historians from New Mexico and from other 
parts, together with the authorities they quote in support of 
their suppositions. There have been several writers who 
besides Bancroft, have brought histories to light concerning 
New Mexico, such as the work of Josiah Gregg "Commerce 
of the Prairies,"' published in 1839, in two volumns, which on 
account of the venality of its language, and the countless 
asinities and calumnies with which it abounds in regard to 
the inhabitants of New Mexico, cannot be considered a se- 
rious historical work, despite the fact that, some of its chap- 
ters are not lacking in merit; the history of New Mexico, by 
Davis, which seems to have taken its inspiration from the 
obscene nonsense written by Gregg concerning the inhabir- 
ants of New Mexico; the histor}^ of Haines which, by reason 
of the impartiality and erudition of its authoress, is more or 
less worthy of attention and consideration, but the ones 
which deserve most our study as serious works, besides 
Bancroft's are those written by the Most Rev. Juan 
Bautista Salpointe, Archbishop of Santa Fe, entitled "The 
Soldiers of the Cross'" and Mr. L. Bradford Prince's entitled 
"Historical Sketches of New Mexico." Both historians en- 
joy a very highly established reputation in the world of 
letters, imparting thus to their works the prestige which the 
words of such prominent personages carry along in them- 
selves. 

Prince divides the history of New Mexico into three dis- 
tinct epochs; the epoch of the aborigines, the Spanish and 
the American epochs. In the first part of his work he gives 
us a very concise indeed, but most pleasing and judicious 
epitome concerning the aborigines of New Mexico. He 
tells us that, as the Indians had no records, or writings 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 53 

about their origin and beginning, nothing can be learned 
about their history except what can be gleaned from their 
traditions, and what the Europeans, who tirst knew them, 
wrote concerning them. Prince declares that, on divers 
occasions, before the conquest and colonization of the terri- 
tory by the Spaniards, several explorers had traversed its 
plains and mountains, and mentions Cabeza de Vaca who 
visited the territory (it must be kept in mind that at those 
times the boundaries of New Mexico extended on the south- 
east very far into the interior of what is today the state of 
Chihuahua, Mexico), by mere accident in 1535-36 in his long 
pilgrimage from the coast of Florida to the Pacific Ocean, and 
Friars Augustin Rodriguez (Ruiz) and Marcos de Niza who 
visited it, Niza being the first one, in 1539, Cordova, as a 
conqueror in 1540, and Ruiz 1581 — Niza and Ruiz as mission- 
aries. Prince does not hesitate to say — and he is not mis- 
taken — that all that is known about those epochs is what is 
read in the accounts given of them by Cabeza de Vaca, Niza, 
Coronado, etc., etc. Those accounts, says Prince, are of the 
highest interest, as they picture very vividly the admirable 
degree of civilization of the Indians, who were found entirely 
isolated, in the midst of intransitable deserts, and sur- 
rounded by nomadic and barbarous tribes. 

In the history of New Mexico, written by Helen Haines in 
1891, we find the startling remark that "It has been said that 
the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico were forced to live in 
pueblos and communities by the Spaniards,"' but the author 
'does not tell us where she obtained that information, and it 
may well be thought that, from a vague rumor, or through 
a stretch of her own imagination she may have made such a 
fabrication, as no author of respectable standing has ever 
uttered such nonsense. Speaking of the origin of the in- 
digenes of New Mexico this author says that "Their origin 
is wrapped up on that obscurity which always envelops or 
surrounds unlettered peoples,"' and declares the Toltecs and 
Aztecs to be descendants of the indigenes of New Mexico. 

The last author, whose word, on account of the elevated and 
eminent position he tilled in the world, is sufficient guaranty 
of what he asserts, bases the statement in his profound and 
serious study both of sacred as well as profane history. He 



54 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

is His Grace, the Most Rev, Juan Bautista Salpointe, Arch- 
bishop of Santa Fe. Don Juan Bautista Salpointe, dedicated 
the greater part of his life to the history of the Indians of 
America, lived among them as missionary the greater part of 
his life, broadening, perhaps more than any one else, his 
theoretical knowledge acquired from books by means of his 
practical and personal study of the Indian himself, consti- 
tuting himself, not only a missionary but also an archeologist 
and ethnologist, and leaving us, as a result, his beautiful 
work — "The Soldiers of the Cross," fruit of his learning 
acquired at the cost of untold sufferings, privations and 
sacrifices. As worthy successor of the immortal Archbishop, 
Don Juan B. Lamy, and of the other missionaries, Ruiz, Niza, 
and other "Soldiers of the Cross," he naturally dedicated his 
whole missionary life to the study of the indigenous inhabit- 
ants of New Mexico and Arizona, having at his disposal, in 
addition to his own observations, the valuable ecclesiastical 
archives at Santa Fe, among which are found historical 
accounts written from the earlier times on the history of New 
Mexico by the real conquerors of this soil — who came to 
baptize with their blood the immense plains and deserts of 
what is today California, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, 
Colorado and Utah. In possession of such rich treasures 
of most useful information, he bequeathed to us such an 
interesting mass of circumstances, which blended together, 
present to us in a convincing manner that w^hich better agrees 
with natural reason respecting the enigmatical question 
which has so dumfounded the historians, archeologists and 
ethnologists of past and present epochs and the writers of all 
nations, namely: "What is the Origin and Beginning of the 
Pueblo Indians of New Mexico?" 

The inquiries of Archbishop Salpointe stretch back to the 
year 1538, the date in which the tirst evangelical missions 
were given in that part of the territory which up to 1863 
belonged to New Mexico, but which is now the State of 
Arizona. "Without pronouncing any judgement," he tells us, 
' 'on the opinion of ethnologists and of those who make serious 
studies of the sacred books regarding the American Indians, 
we simply follow the text of the book of Genesis, adhering 
to the belief that, with the exception of Noah and the mem- 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 55 

bers of his family, the deluge completely destroyed mankind 
and all the living animals, save those which by the command 
of God, Noah carried along with him in the Ark, the fact as 
to whether the deluge was partial or universal being unim- 
portant to our aim," and in support of his proposition, he 
quotes the book of Genesis wherein God says: "I shall erase, 
he said, from the face of the earth, man who I created, from 
man unto the animals, from the reptile unto the birds of the 
heavens, for I repent of having made them." The illustrious 
author mentions, in addition to what has been related, the 
renowned writers, both Catholics, and of other rehgious 
creeds, among the latter, W. Fraser, G. Rowlinson, Karl 
Ritter, Baron von Humboldt, and John Kitto, as well as the 
Spanish and Mexican authors, Gomara, Herrera, and Juan 
de Solorzano who agree with him. We have already seen in 
another part of this work that when the Spaniards conquered 
the Mexican Empire, the indigenes had ideas based in their 
traditions, of God, and Jesus Christ, of the creation of the 
world, and of the deluge. The indigenes of Arizona, or rather 
of New Mexico, had the same belief and ideas, according to 
Archbishop Salpointe. Analyzing these versions, the Arch- 
bishop asks himself the question following: "If all men are 
descended from Noah, whence came the first inhabitants of the 
New World and which direction did they take to get it?" and he 
tinds a satisfactory answer to his question in what Herrera, 
Torquemada and Acosta say, that the inhabitants of the New 
World had their origin in the Old World and that all descended 
from Noah. To the statements of said authors His Grace, 
Archbishop Salpointe subjoins the answer given him by Juan 
Soxloza, a Pdpago Indian of Saint Xavier's mission, Arizona 
at'the time His Grace was but an humble missionary in Ari- 
zona in the year 1866. "Soxloza," the Archbishop says, "had 
a good knowledge of the Castillian language and paid no 
attention to the fabulous narrative of those of his own tribe. 
I asked him if he knew whence had come the Papago Indians 
and of what means had they availed themselves to come to 
this country; and he answered that he had many times heard 
the elders of his tribe say in their "night time chats" that 
very long ago their ancestors had come from very far off 
lands and that they had had to ford a river that was neither 



56 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

too wide nor too deep, but because their number was large, 
all coula not cross the river in a short time, whereupon the 
water of the river commenced to swell, so much that a great 
portion of the people remained on the other side of the river.' 

The Author of this work became convinced that the theory 
asserting that all Indians, who tirst set foot on the Western 
Hemisphere, came from the old world after the deluge, is the 
most reasonable and the one which agrees better with com- 
mon sense. He arrived at this conviction, from what he was 
able to understand after consulting the authors quoted, and 
other writers whose theories he did not care to quote because 
those writers seemed to hold on to the theories herein set 
forth. The reader, however, will have a better opportu- 
nity of forming his own solution of this mystery when he 
reads the chapters following in regard to the accounts given 
by the tirst discoverers and conquerors, enabling himself 
thus to see the precise condition of the indigenes in this 
State from the time when their history began to be 
formed from that condition; and look back, with the aid of 
the knowledge thus acquired, to pre-historic times, increas- 
ing thus the number of those who have made such studies, 
and have dedicated so much time in an effort to tear open the 
veil concealing that secret.* 

Before commencing with the narratives of the first settlers 
and conquerors of New Mexico, the Author wishes to give 
here a brief account of the discovery of America, the life and 
grandeur of Emperor Montezuma, his ancestors and suc- 
cessors; of the discovery and conquest of Mexico by Hernan 
Corte-?, and the tragical end of the last Mexican Emperor, 
Cuahutemoc, cruelly and cowardly murdered by Cortes, who 
thus stained the immortal diadem that adorned his brow as 
the conqueror of Mexico, and wreathed with imperishable 
glory the name of the most illustrious of the heroes that 
honor the pages of the history of the new world — that noble 
patriot, the Emperor Cuahutemoc. The Author deems this 
narrative of great importance because the discovery and 
conquest of New Mexico is interwoven with those great 
events. What the Author shall say, in said narrative concern- 

*Note— See the account g-iven by Fr. Benavides to the King- of Spain 
in 1630 which is iniblished herein as Appendix No. I--The Author. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 57 

ing the discovery of America, of the reign of the Montezu- 
mas, the conquest of Mexico, and the execution of Cuahute- 
moc by Cortes has been taken from the interesting work of 
Don Bruno R. Fabian, a Mexican author, entitled: "Bio- 
grafias de los Heroes de la Independencia." 

Gnristopner Columbus- Discovery of America. 

Christopher Columbus was a celebrated sailor, who, 
thanks to his courage and intelligence, succeeded in discov- 
ering, after many sufferings, and a perilous navigation in 
that immensity of water which we call the sea, the conti- 
nent wherein we live. 

He was born in Genoa, Italy, in 1441, according to the best 
opinion. His parents were Den Domingo Colombo, a wool- 
comber, and Dona Susana Pontana Rosa. He went through 
his primary course of instruction on his native soil, and, on 
the fourteenth or fifteenth year of his age, he dedicated 
himself to navigation. In this career he acquired a pro 
found knowledge even to the conception of the existence of 
other regions, for the wise men of those days thought 
there were no other lands but the ones they knew. 

America, as the whole large extension of land in which we 
live is called, was not knowm by the inhabitants that dwelt on 
the other side of the sea. 

In past ages there was a general enthusiasm in those 
kingdoms; they were endeavoring to discover a short route to 
India. Portugal was the most venturesome; it caused marin- 
ers to be brought from everywhere, among whom was 
Columbus, who for sometime had been living in Portugal 
married to the daughter of a celebrated navigator. This 
navigator left him as a legacy many geographical charts, 
descriptions of voyages, and accounts of some discoveries. 
These enlightened the mind of Columbus to the degree of 
enabling him to conceive the happy thought that, by traveling 
westward, India could be reached sooner, because the earth 
w^as round. The idea of the roundness of the earth was the 
greatest honor in the glory of Columbus. 

Having conceived his project he tirst proposed it to his own 
country, Italy, but, his countrymen not heeding him, he 
returned to Portugal; there a body of learned men considered 



58 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

his projects but, as they could not understand them, they 
declared him a crazy visionary, whereupon he went to Spain. 

This nation approved the plans of Columbus with great 
enthusiasm, but no immediate help was furnished him 
because the nation was engaged in a war with the Moors. He, 
therefore, had to wait for about eight years. In his despair, 
and already a widower, for his wife had died, he resolved to go 
over to France, but his friends, among them Fray Perez de 
Marchena, the queen's adviser, exerted in his favor their 
great influence with the queen who in a burst of enthusiasm 
exclaimed: "I take the enterprise of the discovery for my 
crown of Castille; if there are no funds in the treasury I shall 
pawn my jewels." That did not happen as Don Luis of San- 
tangel, secretary to the queen, furnished the money neces- 
sary for the expedition. 

Columbus was appointed admiral of the high seas and 
viceroy of the countries he should discover. Immediately he 
fitted up his expedition which was composed of three schoon- 
ers called the ''Santa Maria," "La Pinta''and "La Nina," and, 
each with a crew of thi rty men, set sail from the port of Palos 
de Moguer on the 3rd day of August, 1492, amid music and 
the general enthusiasm and joyous acclaim of the multitudes. 

A few days after the departure one of the vessels LaPinta 
was damaged, and they had to stopover at the Canary Islands 
till September 6 when they embarked upon the real enterprise 
over that immense waste of water to them unknown. On the 
13th day the navigators observed the variation of the needle, 
a circumstance which struck them with great terror until 
Columbus explained to them the cause. After the next three 
days they beheld in the heavens a luminous belt which again 
alarmed them, but the admiral who was a man of great 
talents was able again to dispel their uneasiness by explaining 
to them the meteor, and later on they met with a flock of bi rds, 
apart of the sea full of weeds, pieces of wood and many signs 
of nearby land, which caused among them a great deal of 
wonder and enthusiasm, but as these disappeared, gloom and 
even rebellion again returned. 

On October 10, a general dissatisfaction broke out afresh 
among the crew, there was an instance in which they 
threatened the admiral with death if he did not turn back 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 59 

to Spain, but he succeeded in quieting their spirts by offer- 
ing to return them to their homes if in a few days they did 
not discover land. Happily the next day, at about ten 
o'clock at night, Columbus noticed in the distance a faint 
light, and ordered them to be ready promising a reward to 
the first who should see the land. All night long they kept 
watch with indescribable restlessness, until at dawn, on the 
twelfth, Rodrigo de Triana gave the glad shout of "Land, 
Land," amid the boom of a cannon shot. 

Admiral Christopher Columbus after sailing for seventy 
days, exposed to the murmurs and rebellion of his crews, 
had discovered on the twelfth day of October, 1492, these 
lands which he baptized with the name of "New World."' 

The first land he touched on this continent was one of the 
Lucayas called "Guanani" by the aborigines, and to which 
he gave the name of San Salvador, being also known by the 
name of Cat Island. 

It is said that Columbus, filled with emotion and falling on 
his knees, kissed the land, moistened it with his tears and 
gave thanks to Providence for permitting him to realize what 
had been for so long the object of his ambition. He next 
discovered the island of Cuba, which he called Juana, and 
about which, he said, that it was the most beautiful land 
that eyes had ever seen. He also discovered Santo Do- 
mingo and some others. In the waters of Haiti one of his 
vessels was wrecked, and, on his return to Spain, he was on 
the point of perishing in mid sea. When he thought himself 
lost, on account of the fury of the storm, he wrote a brief 
account for the Catholic kings, placed it in a flask secured in 
a cask which he carefully calked and then cast it into the 
sea. But Providence was more favorable, and the daring 
mariners reached Spain landing in the very same port of 
Palos on March 15, 1493, from which they had before 
started. 

The Catholic sovereigns received Columbus kindl}^, and, 
after celebrating his return with a solemn high mass, they 
listened with enthusiasm to his narratives, overloaded him 
with honors, and placed at his disposal every element need- 
ed for a second vo^^age. 



60 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

The admiral made four trips to the new world, adding in 
each important discoveries the news of which caused great 
sensations in all the kingdoms of those times. 

When he returned f tom his last voyage, the queen had 
died, and now, bereft of the aid of his generous protectress, 
he died in the greatest misery on the 20th of May, 1506, 
without receiving from King Ferdinand the least help, but 
carrying along with himself the glory of having discovered a 
new world and having demolished in fragments ancient 
science. 

His remains reposed in the sacristy of the Cathedral at 
Havana, where they were carried in 1795. Spain has demanded 
them as national relics. 

Montezuma II or Xocoyotzin. 

After the reigns of the great King Izcoatl, Axayacatl, the 
conqueror, and the valiant and warlike Montezuma Ilhuica- 
mina, Montezuma II or Xocoyotzin ascended the throne. 

Montezuma was a brother of Ahuizotl, and son of Axayacatl 
the conqueror. When the assembly of the nobles named him 
king of the Aztec empire, he was a priest, a dignity held in 
high consideration and respect by all social classes 

Montezuma lost, with his elevation to the throne, all 
humility, he became haughty and tyrannical, destroyed all 
equality, and surrounded himself with a despotic and ridicu- 
lous court. 

The whole empire groaned under the yoke of his tyranny, 
and the tributes continually increased under penalty of death, 
to those who opposed. 

His extravagance was scandalous. Three hundred subjects 
waited on him. On a large table more than a hundred viands 
were placed before him in gold and silver vases, and, seated 
on a tine linen cushion, he pointed with his golden sceptre to 
the viands he desired to take and which were served to him 
during the sound of music. His servants remained in his pres- 
ence in the most profound silence. They changed garments 
three or four times a day without ever again putting them on. 
His despotism was incomparable. No one entered his palace 
without taking his shoes off, and, before addressing him a 
word, they had to make three profound bows, saying, "Lord, 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 61 

my Lord! Great Lord I" without raising their eyes to see him, 
and, on retiring, it was forbidden them to turn their backs on 
him, for every little carelessness was punishable with death. 
Later on, his despotic and tyrannical character suffered a 
radical change; his superstition increased from day to day, 
and he believed thatevery natural phenomenon as an eclipse, 
hurricane, etc., was a foreboding of the destruction of his 
empire, foretold, as it had been, by the old priests. 

For that reason, when the Spaniards arrived in Mexico he 
felt not with sufficient courage to counteract in himself what 
he called the decree of his false gods, and to battle against 
the enemy as his forefathers had done, but sought by means 
of rich gold presents, to retire them, not understanding that 
in such a manner he only augmented the greed of the Span- 
ish adventurers. 

In the first embassy sent by him to Cortes the latter 
learned that he was held as a god (by Montezuma). He 
dressed himself, thereupon, in his best apparel, ordered a 
throne to be improvised for him, and there received the 
Tecutli and the ambassadors from Montezuma with rich 
presents. He commanded the artillery to be fired and or- 
dered the Spaniards to maneuvre on their horses. This 
exhibition, so extraordinary for the Indians, resulted in con- 
vincing them that the Spaniards were gods, and that Quet- 
zalcoatl came with them. Some Indians copied on paper, 
made from the Maguey, all that they had seen, and promptly 
took the road back to Mexico to give an account to their 
Monarch. 

Whilst this was going on in the coast of Vera Cruz, Monte- 
zuma in Mexico was gathering his nobles and several kings, 
his friends, to deliberate as to whether they should receive 
on terms of peace those whom he believed to be deities. 
Cowed down, as they were, they all resolved to receive them 
peacefully; Cuitldhuac alone, however, said: "My way of 
thinking is, Great Lord, that you admit not in }^our house 
those who may eject you from it!"' But Montezuma, who 
was so sunk in the fatality of his beliefs left the way open to 
the Spaniards, w^ho, otherwise might have not realized their 
bold plans. 






62 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

When Cortes appeared before Tenochtitldn, (the City of 
Mexico) Montezuma went out to receive him amid a scandalous 
display, and, after giving him a banquet, lodged him in one of 
the palaces of the kings. 

Later on, the Monarch always weak, went to live with 
Cortes, in cowardly compliance with the caprices of the in- 
vader, and the latter having learned from the Monarch him- 
self that other Spaniards were coming to take the command 
away from him, left Mexico leaving Alvarado in his stead. 
The latter made a horrible massacre in the temple of their 
gods at the moment in which the Mexicans w^ere celebrating 
the feast of Tozcatl, in the month of May. 

This infamous massacre roused the resentment of the In- 
dians who attacked the Spanish quarters. Alvarado received 
a stone blow on the head and several Spaniards were wound- 
ed. Montezuma for the first time succeeded in causing the 
assailants commanded by Cuitlahuac to withdraw. 

The Mexicans withdrew in search of new war elements. 
On the arrival of Cortes the Spaniards were attacked anew, 
but Cortes, taking advantage of the person of Montezuma 
told him to go out and harangue his people. The Monarch, 
weak as usual clad in his best robes, and accompanied by 
Marina, a noble Indian damsel who served as interpreter for 
■Cortes, approached the parapet of the palace, harangued his 
people telling them that the Spaniards were ready to leave 

the City but, as it was to be expected, 

the Mexicans failed, for the first time, in this traditional re- 
spect to their kings, and young Cuahutemoc incited the war- 
riors not to obey Montezuma, and he himself pushing 
ahead of them threw a stone at him wounding him on the 
head. It is said that Montezuma died from the effects of the 
stone blow, but historical criticism has rejected that error 
assuring us that it was a murder planned by Cortes to confuse 
the Mexicans at the funeral of their king and thus succeed 
in getting out of the city. Montezuma II or Xocoyotzin died 
on June 30th, 1520, a victim of his superstitions. 

liernan Cortes — Conquest of Mexico. 

This Spanish adventurer was born at Medellin, Spain, in 
the year 1485. His parents were Don Martin Cortes and 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO, 63 

Dona Catalina Pozarro de Altamirano, both of noble families, 
though of scant fortune. They dedicated him to study, and, 
from childhood he displayed a great deal of brightness and 
vivacity. He was sent to the University of Salamanca 
because his parents wished him to study law; but, as he was 
of a restless character, inclined to adventure, he soon aban- 
doned college and embraced with warmth the profession of 
arms. His parents sent him to Santo Domingo, where he 
contributed powerfully to the subjection of the rebellious 
pueblos; thence he went over to settle in Cuba, and there he 
received from Governor Don Diego Velasquez the appoint- 
ment of Alcalde in the villa of Santiago, 

Velasquez, hearing, from two expeditions he had organ- 
ized, that gold and silver in great abundance were found 
on the coasts of Mexico, enthusiastically organized a third 
expedition and placed it under the command of Hernan 
Cortes. The latter secretly equipped his expedition, sum- 
moned his men to embark, bought provisions, arms and 
ammunition, and several horses, etc., using for that purpose 
a large portion of his own means. 

Velasquez, fearing that his authority might be disregarded 
by Cortes when the latter should be sailing on the high seas, 
and knowing him to be already a man of military reputa- 
tion, gave orders depriving him of the captainship, but it 
was too late. Cortes set sail, heading for Yucatan, on Feb- 
ruary 10, 1519. With him were Pedro de Alvarado, who 
gave his name to the river of Alvarado, Diego de Ordaz, 
Bernal Diaz del Castillo, and others, too many to enumerate. 

After traversing a perilous stretch of sea, they reached 
the island of Cozumel, Pedro de Alvarado ransacked the 
temples, stealing their golden ornaments; but Cortes, dis- 
gusted at such an action, severely reprimanded him and 
caused the stolen valuables to be returned to the Indians. 
There he set free a Spaniard named Geronimo de Aguilar, 
"who had been made captive in a previous expedition, and 
who further on, was of great use to him as an interpreter. 
From Cozumel he took the way to Tabasco, where he was 
received with hostile demonstrations, but, after some bloody 
combats, entered the town. Here he received several em- 
bassies bringing him presents of birds, gold and twenty 



64 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

female slaves, among them the celebrated Marina, who 
contributed powerfully to the triumph of the conquerors. 
From Tabasco he went to Vera Cruz where he founded that 
city, and organized a body or council of aldermen who gave 
him the title of Captain General declaring him independent 
of the authority of Velasquez. At Vera Cruz he again re- 
ceived several presents from Emperor Montezuma, among 
them two enormous plates as large as carriage wheels — 
one made of g6\d representing the sun, and the other of 
silver representing the moon. 

Montezuma sent word to Cortes stating that he was very 
glad of his coming, but that it was not possible for him to 
come to the coast, nor for Cortes to reach Mexico, because 
of the roughness of the roads. The monarch thus wished, 
by means of entreaties and gold to turn the Spanish con- 
querors away, not realizing that he increased, b}' such a 
course, the cupidity of bold adventurers, who thereupon 
undertook, with greater eagerness, their march to Mexico. 
On their approach to Tlascala, the Tlascalans, under the 
brave Xicotincatl, gave him three battles, in all of which, 
the Spaniards w^ere on the point of defeat; but having at last 
triumphed, they remained there for a month instructing the 
Indians in the Christian doctrine and gathering information 
regarding Mexico. 

They next turned toward Cholula where they were received 
with every appearance of good will, but a conspiracy against 
them having been discovered by Marina, Cortes ordered the 
principal chiefs to gather on the plaza. When they came, he 
ordered his soldiers to put them to death. The massacre 
lasted two days, and for two days the sacred city was a mass 
of flames. 

Cortes then continued his march to Mexico, where, on his 
arrival, Montezuma received him with great pomp and gave 
him lodgement in the palace of his father Axayacatl. A few 
days after, Montezuma was the prisoner of Cortes, and the 
later being informed by Montezuma himself that other Span- 
iards were coming to take the command away from him, he 
started from Mexico leaving Pedro de Alvarado in his stead. 
Diego Veld>squez had sent Pdnlilo de Narvaez to deprive 
Cortes of the command, but the later was surprised at 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 65 

Cempoala and completely routed. On returning to the Capital, 
Cortes found things sad and sombre, because Pedro de 
Alvarado had caused a cowardly massacre to be committed on 
the Indians. The Indians rebelled and assaulted the Spanish 
quarters. Cortes commanded Montezuma to quiet down his 
people, but far from being appeased, they hurled rocks at him 
wounding him on the head. 

The Spanish adventurers, bent on escaping, prepared 
their march, and, after the death of Montezuma, filed out of 
the city taking the greatest precautions not to be seen or felt 
by the Indians; but Cuitlahuac, who knew their movements, 
commanded his men to destroy the causeways, bridges and 
lanes, and. on discovering the Spaniards, attacked them with 
such a fury that the principal captains of Cortes perished by 
drowning, and himself also narrowly escaped from the 
massacre. But thanks to the daring of his companions, they 
saved him amid the whistling of arrows, the roaring of 
cannons that sank in the mud, the sundering of armours and 
the frightful yells of the combatants, above all of which were 
heard the overpowering voices of Cuitlahuac and Cuahutemoc. 

That night, June 30, on which Cortes lost his best officers, 
together with the rich treasure he had gathered, is known in 
history by the name of "Noche Triste," and so it was for the 
Spaniards, but for the Mexicans it was a most glorious one. 
Cortes at the foot of a tree wept bitterly out of rage and grief, 
as he beheld his haughty army tile out before him, a wretched 
and wrecked remnant. Cuitlahuac, the hero of this heroic 
struggle died a few days after, a victim of smallpox. 

The Spaniards fled in search of new allies, for without that 
help, they would have been sacrificed without the least pity. 
Cortes laid siege to the city on May 31, and after 95 days of 
heroic resistance. Emperor Cuahutemoc fell a prisoner into 
the hands of his enemies. He was subjected to the torture 
that he might reveal the whereabouts of his treasures, and, 
later on, was hanged by order of Cortes without justifica- 
tion. With the death of Cuahutemoc on February 27, 1525, 
the conquest of Mexico was finally accomplished, 

Cortes, now lord of the empire of Anahuac, made himself 
master of all the wealth, and committed every sort of hor- 
rible crimes, and the King of Spain, on calling him to account 



66 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

for hi? actions, punished him with contempt and denied him 
all protection. His friends neglected him, and he died in the 
greatest indigence, full of disappointment and disgust in the 
year 1547. 

Cort6s was the conqueror of Mexico, and, despite his cruel- 
ties, he loved fondly the country he conquered, brought to it 
European civilization, and, with it, its progress and develop- 
ment, 

Cortes and Guahutemoc — (A Dialogue.) 

( By Don Francisco Monies de Ocu. » 

Cortes. — This fine country, full of beauties, virgin forests, 
limpid streams, splendid skies is suffering to-day from 
the horrors of war, famine, and disease. Yours is the 
duty to apply the remedy, as that remedy is in your 
hands, and thus bring back to it its old-time peace and 
happiness. 

Guahutemoc. — It is true that the Aztec people is to-day the 
prey of all the calamities you mention; but it is not its 
fault. Never has the world witnessed a more formid- 
able and, at the same time more sublime struggle, but 
the Aztec people never takes a backward step in the 
defense of its homes; the struggle it is keeping up is 
sacred; it is resolved to suffer any hardship, to shed its 

blood, to die I I cannot see any other remedy for 

this cruel situation! 

Cortes.— The remedy is in your hand. 

Guahutemoc— In my hand? What is it? 

Gortes. — Tell your people to receive us as brothers. 

Guahutemoc. — When have you seen the children of the forest 
receive the Jaguars as brothers? You are an insensate 
in speaking in that mannerl But, no, you are right. 
Montezuma received you with open arms and welcomed 
you with the most generous hospitalit3^ This gave us a 
chance to learn how you are used to pay Aztec benevo- 
lence; with theft, outrage of our homes, and murder. 
Are you, perchance, imagining that we are going to imi- 
tate the example of that imbecile and cowardly monarch? 

Cortes. ^Do not call him so. He was a good king. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 67 

Cuahutemoc. — So have I said it; he was good with you and 
yours and you paid him badly. 

Cortes. — 1 always treated him well. 

Cuahutemoc— You treat him well, when you have imprisoned 
him, loaded him with chains, despised and finally mur- 
dered him when he could no longer serve you? 

Cortes. — No, I did not kill him. It was yourselves! 

Cuahutemoc. — if we had killed him we should have done no 
more than an act of justice, and the nation should have 
the conscience of having performed its duty. The traitor, 
the man not espousing the cause of his countrymen, the 
man who deserts the camp of his nation, and joins 
stranger, such a man is killed. But he has not died by 
the blow of our justice, but by the blow of those who re- 
ceived from him the clearest evidences of friendship and 
consideration. I was the first one to hurl my arrow at 
him and jeer at him deservedly. He was an imbecile, 
you are an ungrateful, wicked wretch! 

Cortes. — You are growing haughty and forget that I have the 
might, and can destroy you in an instant. 

Cuahutemoc. — What matters it if you have the might, when 
we have the right! Within our breasts a heart palpitates 
which infuses strength into our veins and makes our 
arms powerful. If you wish to fight, come on, as you will 
always find us at our posts. 

Cortfes. — Pat a stop to a war that will ruin your people. 

Cuahutemoc. — If you are so desirous of its termination, 
begone, depart from this land, and leave us in these 
places which the sweat and patriotism of our ancestors 
has fertilized. Vanish away on those cursed waves that 
cast you on this soil. 

Cortes. — I cannot, for on coming hither I brought along 
providential designs. 

Cuahutemoc. — What, then, do you want? 

Cortes — To make you happy. 

Cuahutemoc. — We were so before; since your coming we have 
been unfortunate! But enough of talking! 

Cortes.— Only one word: Surrender! 

Cuahutemoc. — Death first! 

Cortes. — I shall destroy your city by fire and blood! 



68 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Cuahutemoc. — And I shall defend it until buried beneath its 
wrecks. 

To Cuahutemoc. 

'Tis tit in honor of Cuahutemoc 

Here to relate a glorious incident. 

The valiant chief, when in his prison cell, 

Was asked by Cortes greedy to reveal 

The hiding place of his imperial wealth, 

Which he refused unflinchingly to do, 

A faithful vassal did likewise refuse. 

Wherefore Cortes the cruel order gave 

That both be placed upon a torturing fire 

Until their feet were roasted by the coals. 

At last the vassal looked sadly up and 

Exclaimed, in deep despair, "Let me reveal; 

The racking element quite overpowers 

Me." But firm as a rock, the noble prince, 

Reproving him with a disdainful glance. 

Replied: ^^ Am I upon a couch oj flowers?''^ 

These splendid words shall ring throughout all time 

And last while shine the everlasting stars"? 

Jose Parra y Alvarez. 

With the very brief accounts which the reader has just 
read about the discovery of America, and what relates to the 
Mexican Empire, its conquest, and the sad fate of Cuahu- 
temoc, its last emperor, his mind will be better prepared for 
the perusal of the history of the most romantic of voyages — 
the voyage of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca in the following 
chapter. 

The first of those explorers is Cabeza de Vaca, who pic- 
tures to us, in graphic words, the incidents of Narvdez's ill- 
fated expedition, and his own providential escape with his 
comrades. What we say here, we say it simply by way of 
introduction to the chapter that follows: 

The story of Cabeza de Vaca is the tirst page, so to speak, 
of the history of New Mexico; that is, what is today New 
Mexico, but which was inhabited all over, and extended far 
into the territory which makes today the State of Chihuahua 
and Sonora, at the time when Cabeza de Vaca and his three 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OP NEW MEXICO. 69 

companions wandered through these regions (1528-1536). The 
Author, not desiring to pass as the critic of the methods 
adopted by other writers in what regards their style and 
manner of giving their own deductions respecting what 
Cabeza de Vaca, Niza, Coronado. Espejo, Onate, Otermin and 
De Vargas said; nor yet, with any intent of censuring any one 
of them, will give to the reader, as far as it is possible for him," 
and without adverse commentaries, the self-same words of the 
first explorers, missionaries and conquerors. In drawing a 
distinction between "explorers, missionaries and conquerors" 
the Author means that he places Cabeza de Vaca, Coronado, 
Espejo and others, whom he shall hereafter mention, in the 
category of mere explorers; contemplates Fathers Niza, Ruiz 
and other Franciscans and Jesuits, who visited the country 
in the early times of its history, as true missionaries; while 
he believes Oiiate, Otermin and De Vargas, as the only ones 
who, with the help and co-operation of the Franciscans and 
Jesuits, should be considered and in strict rigor called the 
conquerors of New Mexico. All the historians consulted by 
the Author of this work, excepting Professor Bandelier, who 
has denied the fact in articles published in the New Mexican 
of Santa Fe, New Mexico, and in other writings, agree with 
the Author's belief, that Cabeza de Vaca and his companions 
traversed, in effect, the State of New Mexico in the southern 
part or through the Valley of the Pecos River. With this brief 
statement this chapter closes, and we shall take up in the next 
the voyage of Cabeza de Vaca. 



CHAPTER III. 



Account given by Alvar Nunez Gabeza de Vaca of the tragic end of the 
Armada of Panfilo de Narvaez — A graphic Narrative of all that 
happened between the years 1528-1536 in the marvelous journey 
from coast to coast by Gabeza de Vaca and his three companions. 

The mind of man almost refuses to believe that human 
nature could be capable of performing exploits such as the 
Spaniards performed in the discovery, conquest and pacifi- 
cation of the nev^ world. 

In glancing over the pages of history the admirable exploits 
of Julius Cscsar, Alexander the Great, Charlemagne, and 
Gonzalo de Cordova, among many others, appear most strik- 
ingly before our vision; and, in the last years of the eighteenth 
century, and the first ones of the nineteenth, the imposing 
and majestic figures of George Washington, San Martin, 
Miranda, O'Higgins, Simon Bolivar, Hidalgo, Morelos, Al- 
lende, Abasolo, and other great men, stand out before us in 
bold relief. What history tells us about these great men 
borders on the supernatural, the sublime. But the exploits 
of Cuahutemoc, Cortes and his captains: the Pizarros and 
Almagro eclipse the glories of their predecessors and suc- 
cessors in the profession of arms. Who can read the histor- 
ies of the conquest of Mexico and Peril without admiring 
Cortes as he overcomes the powerful Montezuma and Cua- 
hutemoc, his successor in Mexico; and Almagro and the 
Pizarros in Peru subduing the no less powerful Incas of 
South America? All this notwithstanding, there is no paral- 
lel in the annals of the world in what pertains to corporal 
suffering, patience, and inconceivable privations to the trials 
of Alvar Nuilez Cabeza de Vaca and his companions. 

Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca was born at Jerez de la Fron- 
tera in the province of Cddiz, but the date of his birth could 
never be ascertained. He was a branch of an illustrious origin, 
for his father, Don Francisco de Vera, was the conqueror of 
the Canary Islands (1483). His mother, also a lady from a 
noble progeny, was Madame Teresa Alhaja Cabeza de Vaca, 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 71 

the daughter of a favored descendant of Martin Alhaja, who 
received the surname of "Cabeza de Vaca" by order of the 
King of Navarre, because, on one celebrated occasion, Alhaja 
had marked out with the horn of a cow a path for the army 
through rugged mountains whereby he facilitated the defeat 
of the Moors in the year 1212, and the triumph of the Spanish 
arms at the battle given that year in the place called "Las 
Navas de Tolosa." It is believed that Alvar Niinez abandon- 
ed the paternal surname in order to perpetuate the surname 
"Cabeza de Vaca'' given by the king to his far off maternal 
ancestor, Don Martin Alhaja, as has been said. 

Narvaez Sails.* 

In the year 1527, the seventeenth day of June, Panfilo de 
Narvaez set sail from the port of San Lucas de Barrameda, 
Spain, with six hundred men, including soldiers and colo- 
nists, and six vessels in order to conquer and colonize the 
river of Las Palmas and la Florida in conformity with what 
he was ordered to do by the Royal Schedule, or Decree. It 

*A11 that the reader has read, and all that he will read in this chap- 
ter, on Cabeza de Vaca, is taken from Cabeza de Vaca's own works, 
"Naufrag'ios y Comentarios," republished in Madrid, Spain, by Vic- 
toriano Suarez, in the year of 1906, this being the third edition pub- 
lished in Spain, the first edition having been published in Valladolid, 
Spain, by Francisco Fernandez de Cordova, in the year 1555, in one 
8 tvo. vol. of 143 pages. The second edition was jjublished by Don 
Andres Gonzales Barcia, in the first volume of his work entitled 
"Historiadores primitivos de las Indias Occidentales." This edition 
was reprinted in another work (by the same author) entitled "Histo- 
riadores primitivos de Indias de la Biblioteca de Autores Espailoles" 
(vol. XXIT., P13. 517-599). From these jiublications several authors 
of nearly all the nations of the world, among them Mrs. A. F. Ban- 
delier and her husband, Prof. A. F. Bandelier, Hodge and other 
writers in America and H. Ternaux, of France, and others in Eu- 
rope have published writings on this valuable work. The said edition 
from which I have written this chapter— the aforesaid Suarez edition — 
is contained in two volumes, said two volumes being vol. V. of the 
series of works now being published in Spain by Sud,rez under the 
title "Coleccion de Libros y Documentos Referentes d la Historia de 
America," which I obtained direct from Spain, through the co-opera- 
tion of my literary agents in Madrid, Messrs. Antonio Aragon Mon- 
t^jo and Lie. Francisco Sicilia, together with all the other official 
publications of the "Relaciones" of the rest of the explorers and con- 
querors of New Mexico.— The Author. 



72 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

seemed as though Narvaez had been born only to endure 
and suffer adversities and reverses of fortune (considering 
the fatal outcome of his expedition against Cortes, in Mex- 
ico, when he was routed by the latter at Cempoala, on May 
27, 1520, and the untoward end of the expedition we are now 
considering) bearing up in this last expedition during the 
voyage, against tempests and hurricanes which wrecked two 
of his vessels with the loss of 60 men before he reached the 
coasts of Florida and finally weighing anchor on April 14th, 
1528, in the bay of Tampa, on the coasts of Florida with 
only 300 men, having lost the rest — some in the hurricane 
just alluded to — and the others deserting from him in the 
Island of Santo Domingo. 

From the bay they made their way inland towards the 
North. Among those that made up the expedition were 
Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, Andres Dorantes de Carranza, 
a natural from Bejar del Castanos, province of Extrama- 
dura, Captain Alonzo del Castillo Maldonado, of Salamanca, 
and a slave of Dorantes, named Estevan, or Estevanico, a 
negro, whom Dorantes had brought from Azamor, on the 
Western Coast of Morroco. For several days they always 
journeyed northward, among tribes of warlike Indians who 
frequently worried them, threatening them with hostile 
demonstrations. On the other hand, they were pressed by 
hunger, disease, and the differences and quarrels among 
themselves on account of the little or no discretion of Nar- 
vaez. That sad plight obliged Narvdez to seek the means 
of returning to Spain. As the vessels he had brought from 
Spain had already gone back, he had no recourse left but 
that of building small barks from the elm trees that were 
found in the forests near the sea. After innumerable troubles, 
they were able to construct five floats made of elm wood, 
deerskins and nails which they made from the metal of their 
stirrups and spurs. In such boats did they embark on the 
Mississippi River, and at last arrived at Pensacola Bay, only 
to be almost all wrecked in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. 
When the five floats had reached the mouth of the river, the 
power of the streams aided by a violent hurricane hurled the 
floats far into the sea keeping them apart for four days, with 
serious danger to the crews. All the floats sank, excepting 



[LLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 73 

the one occupied by Cabeza de Vaca and his companions and 
another occupied by a few more. This was cast ashore on the 
6th of November, 1528, on a small island off the coast of 
Texas, inhabited by savage Indians. Another of the floats 
was also cast ashore, sometime after, in the same place as 
Cabeza de Vaca's; so that, in a sudden, as it were, eighty 
Spaniards met together with Dorantes among them. 

They remained on the small island, w^hich they named 
"Isla del Infortunio" (Island of Misfortune) until the winter 
was very far advanced, and, as they were so disprovided of 
victuals and dress, the inclemency of the weather engen- 
dered diseases from whose effects only fifteen survived. At 
the sight of their desperate situation, they resolved on 
separating. Dorantes and his slave were made slaves by the 
Indians and taken to the mainland, whither Cabeza de Vaca 
also followed them, being already tired of living on roots, by 
selling shells and other trinkets to the Indians in the role of 
a merchant. At last, Cabeza de Vaca, Dorantes, Maldonado, 
and Sstevanico were able to get together, after several years 
of wandering in captivity from tribe to tribe, and were also 
able to effect their escape through flight, and by undertak- 
ing their famous journey across the continent which lasted 
one year, or to the 25th of July, 1536, the day they reached 
the City of Mexico. The reader must consider what the 
Author has said heretofore as a mere introduction to the 
vivid description which Cabeza de Vaca himself gives us of 
the expedition and journey. We therefore, proceed to 
reproduce a summary of the interesting narrative leaving out 
all details of little or no importance. 

Account of the Journey. 

After resting for a good while in Mexico, Cabeza de Vaca 
set sail for Spain, presenting to the king on his arrival, the 
interesting narrative in 1537, which begins with a poem in 
which he modestly assures his Majesty that the narrative 
must not be considered a thing of little importance "by those 
who in your name may go to subdue those lands and to 
convert its inhabitants to the knowledge of the true faith and 
the true God and place them under the imperial dominion.'" 
The first chapters of the narrative are omitted because they 



74 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

treat of the events that happened from June 17, 1527, on which 
day Narvaez set sail from the Port of San Lucas de Barrameda^ 
to the 14th of April, 1528, the day on which the expedition 
laid anchor on the coasts of Florida; of which events and 
incidents a more or less detailed account has already been 
given the reader in the preceding paragraphs of this chapter, 
and we shall only follow up the narrative commencing on the 
day on which Narvd-ez undertook his march inland with his 
men on April 15, 1528. 

The next day (15) the governor (Narvaez) made up his mind 
to explore those lands in order to see what might have been 
therein. With him went Cabeza de Vaca, the assessor and 
forty more men , among them six on horseback. They traveled 
all the day stopping for the night near a large bay which 
seemed to extend into the interior or the inland. The next 
day they returned to the coast. Governor Narvaez then sent 
a bark in search of the port which Miruelo, the pilot, said he 
knew and with orders, also, that, if it were not found, to- 
continue the voyage towards Havana in search of the vessel 
which Captain Alvaro de la Cerda was bringing in with 
provisions, and to bring it to Florida. Narvaez and many of 
his men again explored the land contiguous to the coast; they 
traveled about four miles where they met with four Indians 
and gave them some corn to see if they knew what was given 
them; but the Indians knew the corn well, and leading the 
Spaniards into the inland, carried them to a place where the 
tribe was camped and showed them many corn fields. In the 
same manner the Spaniards saw that the Indians had many 
things indicating that some civilized peoples must have 
previously been in those lands. Among those things there 
were remnants of woolen and linen goods which the Indians 
said they had obtained in a distant province, very far in the 
interior which was called Apalaches. 

From that point the Spaniards continued their journey 
carrying along always some Indians as guides until they 
encountered a village composed of 15 houses and saw also 
fields of corn already ripe. The Spaniards stayed two day& 
on that spot returning thence to the coast where they 
remained until May first, a day on which after a consultation 
between Narvaez, Cabeza de Va a, Bartolome Fernandez,. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 75 

Jeronimo Alariez and others, Narvaez resolved to abandon the 
ships and continue his expedition by land; all of which Cabeza 
de Vaca opposed, because they were all disprovided of 
everything necessary for such an enterprise. 

On the following day Narvdez gave the order to march in- 
land giving each one of the 300 men that accompanied him two 
pounds of bread and one pound of bacon. Of the total num- 
ber of men 40 were mounted. With so small a ration they 
traveled 15 days without meeting with anything, not even 
Indians. They continued their journey until they came ta 
a rather large river and upon its banks beheld a town of In- 
dians from whom they obtained corn in sufficient supply to 
appease the hunger that was devouring them. Prom here,, 
at the suggestion of Cabeza de Vaca, Narvdez sent Cabeza de 
Vaca, with Captain Alonzo del Castillo and 40 men, in search 
of a sea port which, the Indians told them, was near. They 
returned disheartened because of not having been able to 
cross the river, and Narvaez sent another party of 60 men 
under the command of Captain Valenzuela, with instructions 
to follow the course of the stream to its mouth and see if he 
could find the seaport. Valenzuela found the port but report- 
ed that it was not of sufficient depth to allow the anchorage of 
vessels of ordinary size; that, yet he had seen five or six 
canoes with Indians who crossed from coast to coast, their 
heads bedecked in very showy feathers. The report of Valen- 
zuela greatly dejected all the Spaniards with the exception of 
Narvaez who wishing, perhaps, to duphcate the blow given by 
Cortes to the malcontents of his troops when he sunk his ves- 
sels in the port of Vera Cruz, imagined he was to find another 
empire like the Mexican, and make its conquest with less men 
and with an absolute lack of food and war provisions, being 
thus enabled to eclipse the glory acquired by Cortfes and 
avenge the ignominious defeat which Cortes had made him 
suffer in Mexico. But Divine Providence had made Cortes a 
real genius, and had predestined him, as an instrument, to en- 
compass the christianization of the great empire of the most 
powerful of Indian rulers in the American Continent; while 
he, Narvaez, had not been formed for the realization of great 
things, and only his inmoderate ambition, and unmeasured 
envy towards the real heroes made him believe himself 



76 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

capable of greater exploits. He was a poor deluded dreamer 
incapable of commanding a mere squad of soldiers, much less 
expeditions worthy only of great generals. The wretched 
end of the expedition about which we are here speaking was 
the result of Narvaez incompetence, as he himself gave proof 
of, when all his men with the approval of CabezadeVaca, after 
hearing the account of Valenzuela, urged him to return to 
the coast, but he (Narvaez), his soul puffed up with vanity, 
disregarded the entreaties and suggestions, of his comrades 
and undertook, despite the report of Valenzuela his march 
towards the land and towns of the Apalache Indian tribe. 

After traveling for several days without seeing Indians, or 
anything else of any importance, they met on June 17th with 
a party of Indians who carried their chief on their shoulders 
profusely adorned with most splendid feathers, and skins 
richly painted and trimmed. The crowd was accompanied by 
several Indians playing on reed flutes. The Spaniards were 
much pleased with the coming of the Indian chief, who, after 
a long consultation with Narvaez, by means of signs, informed 
the Spaniards that he was at war with the Apaches, and that 
he would gladi}^ accompany them to go and fight against them. 
Narvaez gave presents of glass beads to the Indian chief, and 
the latter returned the courtesy by giving Narvaez as a 
present the deer skin with which he covered himself. At the 
end of the interviews Narvaez continued his march camping, 
at the end of the days travel, by tiie bank of a very large 
river, in order to cross which they had to build floats. One 
from among the troops, Juan Velasquez, attempted to cross 
the river on horseback, and was drowned together with the 
horse, an occurrence that distressed the Spaniards very 
much, as it was the first death in the expedition to the main 
land, and because too, Velasquez was one of the most intrepid 
soldiers in the expedition. They recovered the corpse and the 
horse and with the horse's flesh they supped that night as 
they were already very hungry. 

The next day they arrived at the village of the Indian chief 
above mentioned, who, together with his people fled, though 
following the Spaniards from behind and making warlike 
demonstrations. Thereupon Narvaez ordered the cavalry to 
fall upon them. That was done without the Indians making 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 77 

front to resist the onset; but they ran away fleeing and leaving 
four of their number, who were captured and obliged to go 
with the Spaniards as guides on the journey. On June 25th 
they reached the land of the Apaches, where they found 
abundance of corn and venison, but there were no male 
Indians, and the forty dwellings in the village were occupied 
by the Indian women and children. 

Capture of the Village and What Was Seen In It. 

Cabeza de Vaca with fifty mounted men, and accompanied 
by the Inspector, Alonzo de Soils, in obedience to superior 
orders, assaulted the village, but the natives made no strong 
opposition, contenting themselves with shooting a few arrows- 
at the Spaniards without inflicting any greater damage than 
the killing of a horse, the horse of Sclis, and then abandoned 
the village with their wives and little ones. They returned 
next day requesting permission to carry away their families. 
The request was granted by Governor Narvdez, who in 
imitation of Cortes, caused the Indian chief to remain as his 
prisoner, a thing not at all pleasing to the Indians, for the 
next day they appeared, in great numbers, and attacked the 
Spaniards, loosing, in the encounter, an Indian killed by the 
Spaniards. The battle did not last long, as the Indians soon 
fled but only to retu rn, a few hours after, to renew the assault 
with the loss of another Indian killed also by the Spaniards. 
After this defeat the Indians did not again molest the Span- 
iards who remained camping in the village for 25 days. At 
the end of this time they resumed their inland march, taking 
along with them the Indian chief and a few of his people who 
served as guides, and from whom they received the informa- 
tion that there was very far in the interior a village called 
Ante in which there was a great abundance of corn, beans 
and other vegetables. All along the way the Indians did 
not fail to harass the Spaniards. Before getting to the 
village of Ante the Spaniards saw two very large lakes and a 
very large river, and had several combats with the Indians 
with the loss of one Spaniard and several wounded, among 
them, Cabeza de Vaca. At Aute they met with no resistance,^ 
the Indians having abandoned the place beforehand; but they 
did find much corn, beans and other eatables. From Aute 



78 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Narvdez sent Cabeza de Vaca with some soldiers in search of 
the coast so as to be able to get out of the lands of the [ndians. 
Cabeza de Vaca could not find the way to the coast as a very 
large and deep river, which they could not ford, did not allow 
that; and on his return to Aute, he found Narvdez and his 
comrades sick and discouraged at the many things they had 
suffered, and without any hopes of ever realizing the dreamed 
of ideals of Narvdez. 

The Spaniards Leave Aute. 

On August 3rd, 1528, the Spaniards abandoned the village of 
Aute starting on their march to the sea coast, amid thousands 
of sacrifices and uncountable sufferings. The number of the 
sick increased more and more from day to day, and the 
troubles and worries were becoming unbearable, by reason 
of hunger, the dangers they often saw themselves exposed to 
on account of the attacks of the Indians, and above all, through 
the lack of sufficient horses for the transportation of the sick. 
Despite their distressing situation, the Spaniards never gave 
away to despair, neither did they weaken in the least in the 
firmness, of their faith in God. Animated by that faith they 
traveled fearlessly struggling at the same time with hunger, 
the savages, the decease. In the midst of all this, traitors 
were not wanting, among the cavalry troop, who secretly 
planned their flight with the horses leaving the sick and 
other comrades to perish from hunger and at the hands of 
the savages. Owing to the vigilance of Cabeza de Vaca the con- 
spiracy was discovered, and the consummation of a most hor- 
rible crime was avoided. The rebellious were again pacified, 
and Governor Narvdez, realizing that the conspiracy might 
again take root in the hearts of the malcontents, condescend- 
ed to give them a proof of his sincerity and of the great con- 
fidence he reposed in them. He summoned them together 
with the other Spaniards to discuss the best step that could 
be taken to get out of the strained and very painful situation 
they were in. All at last agreed that the only recourse left 
them was to construct floats and then try to reach the Gulf 
by rowing. But as they had neither tools, nor any of the 
other materials necessary for the construction of the floats, 
nor the provisions needed to feed those who would he employ- 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 79 

ed in constructing them, the reahzation of the project seemed 
impossible. But the genius of man can make incredible 
things in cases of extreme necessity. They determined to 
construct the five floats or barks mentioned at the beginning 
of this chapter. 

In order to subsist while the work lasted, a horse was 
ordered to be killed every third day, and also that a squad of 
horsemen should go every day to the village of Ante after 
corn, a thing which the Indians, sometimes willingly, and 
most times reluctantly, furnished them with, in order thus 
to accelerate their departure. Finally, on the 22 of Septem- 
ber, after having lost 40 men, some killed by disease, and 
others by wounds received in engagements with the Indians, 
and when they had only their last horse left, they were able 
to embark in their fragile barks, having first killed the horse 
that remained in order to feed themselves with its meat; 
and from the skin they made gourds in order to carry 
drinkable water. To the place from which they embarked 
they gave the name of "Bahia de los Caballos." Before they 
reached the Gulf the water gave out and they were compell- 
ed to drink salt water, three Spaniards dying therefrom. 
They also landed again after sailing six days, but the Indians 
attacked them killing two and wounding the Governor, Nar- 
vdez. The 5th of November (1528) was the day they reached 
the Gulf and were separated by the angrj^ sea and violent 
hurricane of which we have spoken, with the mentioned result. 
Now, omitting what the reader already knows about the cap- 
tivity of Cabeza de Vaca and his companions among the sav- 
age Indians, for six years, we shall give, what remains for us 
to say about the end of that memorable expedition, in the 
very same words of Cabeza de Vaca. It must be observed 
that the four adventurers, Cabeza de Vaca, Andres Dorantes, 
Alonzo del Castillo, and the negro Estevanico, remained at 
that time in captivity, separated from each other, and unable 
to see one another, and that they were reunited only, through 
mere chance, about a year before their flight, which was when 
they concerted their plan of escape. 



80 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

The Spaniards Driven to the Extreme of Eating Their Own Flesh. 

Before proceeding to narrate the journey of Cabeza de Vaca 
and his companions it is proper to inform the reader of the 
tragical end of seven Spaniards of those who had survived the 
ill fated expedition after the rest had perished (in this number 
Cabeza de Vaca and his three companions are not included) 
and the extremes hunger drove them to. In the Island of 
Malhado, camping on the coast, were five, Sierra, Diego 
L6pez, Corrdl, Palacios and Gonzalo Ruzy. These five were of 
the last of those who remained in that place because of lack of 
food, the rest finally succumbing to death by starvation, and 
they became crazy with hunger and turned into cannibals by 
eating their dead companions until there was only one left, 
"because there was no one to eat him,"' as Cabeza de Vaca 
says.* The other two were Sotomayor and Esquivel. Cabeza 
de Vaca states that these two were the only survivors of 
another remnant of the expedition who had remained in 
another part of that same coast, and who also had been driven 
to the extreme of eating one another; that of the flesh of the 
dead companion they would make jerked meat, and fourteen 
of them died and were so eaten from November to March, and 
that finally there were only two left, Sotomayor and Esquivel; 
that when Sotomayor died, Esquivel made jerked meat of his 
flesh, and was able to live on his companion's flesh until the 
month of March when an Indian found him and took him to 
his tribe, t 

Having given the reader the details of the shocking situation 
these truly wonderful men had to face, the parallel of which is 
not to be found in any part of the world, we shall proceed to 
contemplate the most daring of all known overland journeys, 
a journey which surpasses in daring and romance even the 
travels of Marco Polo. 

* "Y cinco Christianos que estavan en raneho en la eosta lleg-aron 
a tal extremo que se comieron los unos a los otros hasta que quedo uno 
solo, que por ser solo no huvo quien se lo comiese. Los nombres del 
los son estos: Sierra, Diego Lopez, Corral, Palacios, Gonzalo 
Kuyz."— Nautragios, 52. 

t "Y los que morian. los otros los hazian tasajos, y el ultimo que 
murio fue Sotomayor, y Esquivel lo hizo tasajos, y comiendo del se 
mantuvo hasta primero de Marzo, que un Indio delos que a alii avian 
huyido vino a ver si eran muertos y llevo a Esquivel consigo." — 
Naufragios, 07. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 81 

Life or Gabeza de Vaca and His Companions Among the Savages. 

After getting used to the life of the Indians, Cabeza de 
Vaca embraced the occupation of merchant, and, so, was able 
to go from tribe to tribe, as he says it, in his narrative 
published with the title of "LosNaufragios." "And now with 
my deals and merchandise I used to enter into the inland all 
I wanted to, and all along the coast I wandered about for over 
40 to 50 leagues."' 

In that way he could penetrate very far into the interior of 
the country, seeing, as he tells us, in one of his visits for the 
first time, buffalo cows about which he says: "They catch 
cows here, and I have seen them, and eaten thrice of them, 
and they appear to me to be of the same size as those of Spain ; 
they have short horns, as the Moorish ones, their hair quite 
large, merino kind, like a cloak; some are grayish and others 
black, and in my opinion, they have better and thicker meat 
than the ones here. From those that are not large the Indians 
make sacks to cover themselves, and from the best ones they 
make shoes and shields; these come by way of the North 
through the interior, down to the coast of Florida, and are 
scattered over all the land for more than 400 leagues; and, all 
along this road through the valley by which they come, people 
who live there come down and get their maintenance from 
them, and import into the land large quantities of hides." 

The merchandise sold by Cabeza de Vaca to the Indians 
were things which cost him only the work of gathering them. 

"My chief deal was in periwinkles, their center pieces, 
and shells with which they cut a sort of fruit which is like 
french beans and with which they cure themselves and make 
their dances and feast, and this is the thing that commands 
higher price among them, and sea beads and others things. 
So then, this was what I carried into the land of the interior; 
and in exchange and barter for them received skins and 
red ochre with which they rub and color their hair and faces; 
flint rock to make arrow points, paste and hard reeds to make 
them, and certain tassels made of deer-hair which they color 
and change into red." 

To his good luck as a merchant, fortune vouchsafed to add 
that of his acquaintance with hygienic laws. Availing him- 



82 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO, 

self of every possible opportunity to capture the kindness of 
the savages he employed all the advantages of his education 
and experience in order to do many things which to the In- 
dians were nothing less than miracles. The superstition 
which had taken hold of the Indians respecting the super- 
natural power which Cabeza de Vaca possessed, according 
to them, reached its climax when they told him that he and his 
companions could cure all the diseases (here the Spaniards 
were already together), for now and then, the different 
tribes, with which they dwelt, were wont to meet, and it 
was on this occasion that the}'' were able to begin to concert 
plans for their escape. Cabeza de Vaca relates to us how he 
and his companions came to exercise the science of medicine 
in the following terms: 

"In the island about which I have spoken they wanted to 
make us physicians without examining us or asking for our 
credentials, because they cure disease by breathing on the 
sick person, with that breath and the hands they expel the 
disease from the patient; and they commanded us to do the 
same and to beof some service; we laughed at it, and told them 
that was a joke, for we could not cure, and for this reason 
they would take our meals from us, till we did what they told 
us. And seeing our resistance, an Indian told me that I did 
not know w^hat I said in saying that, what he knew would 
avail nothing, because the rocks and other things that grow 
on the fields have virtue; and that he with a hot stone carr}'- 
ing it on the stomach, healed and took the pain away, and 
that we who were men, it was certain, possessed higher vir- 
tue and power. And as at the time we were here so many of 
their people died, there was a very great famine in the 
houses on account also of their observance of their customs 
and ceremonies; and those who looked for it, no matter how 
much they worked, could obtain but very little owing to the 
hardness of the time; and for this reason the Indians who held 
me went out of the Island, and in some canoes crossed over to 
the mainland, to certain bays where there were many oysters, 
and during three months of the year they eat nothing else 

and drink very bad water And so we staid until the end 

of April, when we went to the sea coast where we ate straw- 
berries the whole month,'" The circumstance of making 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 83 

cures to the Indians looked like a providential design for on 
account of the cures which Cabeza de Vaca performed 
daily, the Indians of all the tribes showered on him so 
many attentions that they allowed him to pass freely 
from tribe to tribe, a privilege of which Cabeza de Vaca 
readily availed himself to join with the other Spaniards and 
the negro Estevanico, especially so on the occasions when 
the different tribes used to assemble at the places where 
prickly pears abounded in order to have their dances and eat 
pears and continue thus to secretly mature their plan of 
escape, all of which he did with admirable discretion and skill, 
and of which he gives us an account in these words: 

"And for this reason I determined to go over to the others, 
and with them I had better luck; for, as I had become a 
merchant I tried to make the best I could of the occupation, 
and for this reason they fed me and treated me well, and 
entreated me to go from place to place for things they wanted; 
for, by reason of their continued warfare, one cannot travel 

nor trade And this occupation suited me well, because 

by practising it I had liberty to go wherever I pleased, and 
was not obliged to do anything, and was no slave, and where 
ever I went they gave me good treatment and fed me on 
account of my merchandise, and most chiefly because by 
going around in it, and looking ahead as to how I should leave; 
and among them I was very well known; they were very glad 
when they saw me, and brought them what they needed, and 
those who knew me not sought me and wished to see me on 
account of my fame." 

As the Spaniards were already agreed as to availing them- 
selves of every opportunity for getting together and attempt- 
ing their flight, all of them were always on the alert; and as 
each and all knew well the whereabouts of the others, Cabeza 
de Vaca, was able, without much difficulty, when he thought 
the opportune moment had arrived to take the dangerous 
step, to consult with Dorantes and Estevanico during the 
month of August, so that finding himself, at that season, quite 
near the nation where Dorantes and Estevanico were staying, 
the later came to him and communicated to him their plans to 
commence the flight, as Cabeza de Vaca tells us in his 
narrative: 



84 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

"And on the 13th day of the month, Dorantes and Esteva- 
nico arrived at where I was, and told me how they had left 
Castillo with other Indians that were called Anazados, and 
that they were near there, and that they had much trouble, 
and that they had been lost, and that in another day ahead our 
Indians moved to where Castillo was, and were going to unite 
with those who held him, and become friends the ones with 
the others, because so far they had had war, and in this 
manner we recovered Castillo." 

Cabeza de Vaca accompanied Dorantes and Estevanico to 
the place in which Castillo was with the Indians. The descrip- 
tion of those Indians is given us by Cabeza de Vaca, thus: 

"These have another tongue and are called Avavares, and 
are those who used to carry the bows to ours, and went to 
trade with them; and although they are of another nation and 
tongue, they understand the language of those with whom we 
were before, anr^ they had arrived there on that same day 
with their tents." 

It was in this place that Cabeza de Vaca and his companions 
formally made up their minds to carry into effect their daring 
project. 

Escape of Cabeza de Vaca and His Companions. 

It was now the middle of August, 1535, when Cabeza de 
Vaca and his companions escaped, and commenced the most 
celebrated pilgrimage recorded in history, a pilgrimage 
which served to immortalize the names of those four human 
beings, who, by their daring and intrepidity left, on the pages 
of the history of the New World, written and imperishable 
proofs of a peerless courage, which heightened by their 
unconquerable faith in Divine Providence, enabled them to 
emerge safely from so many dangers and sufferings. Com- 
mending themselves to the protection of God, they undertook 
their wonderful march in the month of August, 1535, running 
at full speed, but with great fears of being observed and 
captured by the Indians. 

At sundown they arrived at an Indian camp, led by four 
Indians, who had been sent beforehand to meet them, as tne 
Indians of that camp, who belonged to the nation of the"Chava- 
vares,' ' had already heard that Cabeza de Vaca and his compan- 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 85 

ions were coming in that direction, and that they made cures of 
great merit, and were therefore received with manifestations 
of joy. "At once,"' says Cabeza de Vaca, "the people offered us 
plenty of prickly pears, for they already knew about us and 
how we cured, and of the wonders which Our Lord worked 
through us, which, even if there had been no others, suffi- 
ciently great were the ones of opening roads for us through 
an unpeopled land, and allowing us to meet people where for a 
long time none had been, and freeing us from so many dan- 
gers, not allowing them to kill us, and feeding us in our 
extreme hunger, and so disposing the hearts of those people 
as to treat us w^ell, as we shall say further on." 

The next day some Indians came and asked Castillo to cure 
them, as they were suffering very hard from headaches. 
Castillo offered a mental prayer with eyes upraised to heaven 
and his hands folded across his breast, and made next the 
sign of the cross over the Indians which was enough for them 
to feel cured, and to communicate the miraculous incident 
to their people; wiierefore they made great feasts bestowing 
lavishly on Cabeza de Vaca and his comrades real homages. 
The Indians that had been cured were willing to give proofs 
of their gratitude and brought the Spaniards a large quantity 
of prickly pears, and with them others came who said they 
were sick, and brought along wnth them a great deal of 
venison and other food stuffs. All were cured bj^ merely the 
sign of the cross made over them by Cabeza de Vaca and Cas- 
tillo, wherefore they continued their festivities, and the pres- 
tige of the Spaniards, as superior beings, was thereby 
assured; such was the pleasure felt by the Indians with the 
cures made by Cabeza de Vaca and Castillo that from that 
day on heralds were sent from nation to nation announcing 
the arrival of the Spaniards. Cabeza de Vaca knew well how 
to recognize and turn to advantage what their cures procured 
for them, and thenceforward he assumed in truth and in deed, 
the superiority and supernatural power w^hich the Indians 
attributed to him. So it is that, at the close of the feast, 
things changed. Let us hear Cabeza de Vaca: 

"And the feast lasted three days on account of our coming, 
and at the end of them we asked them concerning the land 
ahead, and for the people there were in it. We told them 



86 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

that we wanted to leave at that sundown, and they answered 
that in that direction the people were very far off, and we 
commanded that they send word to let them know that we 
were going thitherward, and they excused themselves as 
much as they could for doing this. 

But they dared not do anything else, so they sent 

two women, one of theirs, and the other, of the ones they held 
captives; and they sent these because woman can trade, 
though there be war: and we followed them and stopped at 
a place where it was agreed we should wait for them ; but they 
delayed for five days, and the Indians said that they must 
have not found any people. We told them to take us north- 
ward, they answered in the same manner, saying that there 
were no people there, but very far off, and that there was 
nothing to eat, and no water; and with all this, we insisted 
and said that we wanted to go there, and they still excused 
themselves the best way they could, and on this account we 
got angry, and I went out of the camp one night to sleep in 
the camp apart from them; but they went immediately to 
where I was and were all night without sleeping and with 
great fear, and speaking to and telling me how struck with 
fear they w^ere, pleading with us not to be angry any more and 
that though they should die on the road, they would take us 
where ever we wanted to go; and, as we yet feigned angriness 
so that their fear might not leave them, a strange case 
occurred, and it was that, on this same day, many of them got 
sick and on the next day eight men died. All through the 
land they were so much afraid of us that it looked as if they 
would all die at the sight of us." 

The death of those eight Indians was attributed by all the 
tribe as being the consequence of the displeasure of Cabeza 
de Vaca, the result of their fear being, that the other tribes 
through which the Spaniards passed were very careful of 
pleasing them by obeying them and complying willingly 
with their orders. From this place, always preceded by 
guides, as has been said, Cabeza de Vaca and his comrades 
followed up their journey for many leagues northwards till 
they came to lands where mountains and piilon woods 
abounded. About that, Cabeza de Vaca says: 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 87 

"There are in that land short pine trees, and their pine 
apples are as small eggs, but the piilones are better than those 
of Castille, because their shells are thinner; and when they 
are green, they grind them and make them into balls and in 
that manner they eat them; and if they are dry they grind 
them with the shells, and eat them as powders." 

Hunger Drives the Spaniards to Eating Dog Flesh. 

Before following Cabeza de Vaca and his companions it is 
well to again call the reader's attention to the awful plight 
hunger placed Cabeza de Vaca and his companions in before 
reaching the land where pinon trees were found. On their 
way they came across some Indians who were just as bad off, 
so far as food was concerned, as the Spaniards. The 
Spaniards were completely worn out from fatigue and 
hunger when these Indians were found, and seeing that 
the said Indians had nothing to give to them, Cabeza de Vaca 
made up his mind to buy from the Indians two dogs in order 
to appease their hunger, and the Indians gladly sold the 
dogs to the Spaniards. The dogs were killed, accordingly, 
and all partook of a hearty dinner after which the Spaniards 
continued their journey. * 

Taking all the necessary supplies of those foods they 
continued their journey for months until at last they met a 
large river (which all historiographers say was the Rio de 
Pecos), which Cabeza de Vaca called "El Rio de las Vacas," 
on account of his having seen there many blankets and buffalo 
robes, and they also found at this point much corn which the 
Indians said had been brought from certain lands to the West. 

"We also wanted to know whence had they brought that corn 
and they told us that from where the sun sets, and that there 
were lots of it all through that land, but that the nearest way 
thither was through that road. We asked them which way we 
should go well, and to inform us about the road, because they 
did not want to go there; they told us that the road was a long 

* "Despues que comimos los perros, pareciendonos que teniamos 
alg-un esfuerzo para poder yir adelante, encomendamonos a Dies 
nuestro Seiior para que nos guiase, nos despedimos de aquellos Indies 
y ellos nos encaminaron a otros de su leng'ua que estavan cerca de 
alii" — Naufragios, Chap. 23. 



88 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

that river northward, and that in 17 (jornadas) journeys 
(days) we would find nothing else to eat, but a fruit which 

they call chacan After staying there two days, we 

decided to go in search of the corn, and did not wish to take 
the road of Las Vacas because it is northward, and that was 
for us a big circuit, because we always held it for certain that 
D-oinsr towards the sunset we would find what we desired." 

They traveled for several days following the river bank 
westward until they reached, after traveling for forty-seven 
days, certain lands surrounded by sierras (mountain chains) 
in which there were certain pueblos inhabited by semi-civil- 
ized Indians who lived in well made dwelling houses. 

"At the end of these journeys we found houses with seats 
(or houses solidly laid) where much corn was gathered, and 
they gave us a great quantity both of the corn and its meal, 

also pumpkins and beans, and cotton blankets Among 

these houses there were some made of ground (adobes) and 
all the others were made out of reeds and rushes." 

Cabeza de Vaca and his companions now were very far in 
the interior of the territory which forms today the State of 
Sonor^, in the Mexican Republic. The pueblo in which days 
before, corn, meal, pumpkins, beans, and cotton blankets had 
been given to the Spaniards, was, doubtless, the Pueblo of 
Zuni,asthe reader will see before the end of this chapter, 
from what the Indian governor of that pueblo said in Santa 
Fe, the Capital of New Mexico, in 1883. 

The Indians that inhabited these places told the Spaniards 
that somewhere there (thereabouts) were other men like 
themselves, and Cabeza de Vaca anxious to see the faces of 
other Christians desired to send on that night one of his 
companions in search of those Christians; but as they refused 
to do it, Cabeza de Vaca decided to go himself with Estevanico 
in search of them undertaking his journey the next day. 




His Lordship, Don Jose Antonio Laureano Zubiria, Bi.sliop of Durango, under 
whose ecclesiastical jurisdiction was New Mexico while a province of the Repub- 
lic of Mexico. Bishop Zul)iriil's first visit to New Mexico was made in 18»3, and 
his last in 1843-4. He was, therefore, New Mexico's last Bishop under Mexican rule. 




I 



kMost lU'v. Don Juan Bautistu Lamy, Archbishop of Santa Fe, Was New 
Mexico's first Bishop, 1851, under the American government. His life and works 
published in iinotlier part of this work. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 91 

After traveling thirty leagues, and gone past three Indian 
towns, where the Christians referred to had slept the night 
before, they overtook four of them mounted on horses. Their 
mutual surprise can only be imagined. At this sudden 
meeting in the interior of unknown lands, surrounded by 
thousands of barbarous Indians, the mounted Spaniards were 
dumfounded and stupefied at their beholding in their presence 
of two human beings, one, a white man, the other a negro, who 
were not Indians, nor yet looked like European on account of 
the ragged apparel they were dressed in. Cabeza de Vaca 
and the negro were equally surprised so much so that 
neither the ones nor the others dared speak a word, but by 
means of signs, were at last able to understand that they 
were Europeans, the recognition being followed by their 
conversation in the Castillian language and relating to them- 
selves mutually the story of their adventures. The mounted 
Spaniards informed Cabeza de Vaca that their chief, Diego 
de Alcardz was, with othec soldiers, very near them, and 
then carried Cabeza de Vaca and the negro to the place 
where Alcaraz was. Great was the pleasure of Alcaraz on 
meeting with Cabeza de Vaca for he also and his men had 
begun to suffer through the lack of food. Alcaraz thence sent 
three men on horseback, accompanied by fifty Indians, to go 
and bring Castillo and Dorantes, Estevanico the negro going 
with them in order to guide them. When Estevanico, with 
the soldiers and Indians mentioned, had left, Cabeza de Vaca 
requested Alcardz to give him a written document stating 
how it happened that he, Cabeza de Vaca, had come to meet 
with Alcaraz, and to tell the month, day and year, a thing 
Alcaraz did with great pleasure. The place in which Cabeza 
de Vaca met with Alcaraz was very near a large river, at a 
distance of about 30 miles from the Villa of San Miguel at 
Culiacan (Spanish Villa) in the province called New Galicia. 

During Estevanico's absence, Alcaraz manifested to Cabeza 
de Vaca his sadness of heart at not having been able to 
capture any Indians in order to make them slaves and also 
informed him of the extremity of his situation on account 
of the scarcity of victuals. About it Cabeza de Vaca says: 

"And after having spoken to him, he told me that everything 
was quite lost there, because many days had elapsed sinca 



■92 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

he had not been able to take any Indians, and that he had no 
way of going out, because among them need and hunger had 
begun to appear." 

Cabeza de Vaca at once foresaw that Alcaraz had no good 
designs towards the Indians, and that, perhaps, also, on 
himself and his companions he might play a treacherous part 
or an injustice, by asking from them their co-operation in 
order to cause the apprehension of the Indians, a thing in 
which Cabeza de Vaca did not feel disposed to help, on 
account of humanitarian motives, and also because the 
indigenes had been to him during his long journey, very 
magnanimous. Cabeza de Vaca's fears were not unfounded. 
Five days after Estevanico, the three mounted soldiers, and 
the fifty Indians went out to get Dorantes and Castillo to the 
encampment of Alcaraz, Estevanico and the others returned 
accompanied by Dorantes and Castillo and by 600 Indians, 
friends to Cabeza de Vaca and his companions, but the ene- 
mies of Alcaraz and his troops who had obliged them to llee 
to the woods. Im mediately on the arrival of Castillo, Dorantes 
and the others, Alcaraz gave orders to Cabeza de Vaca to 
compel the Indians to bring him food and provisions, a thing 
which Cabeza de Vaca deemed unnecessary', because the In- 
dians had brought with them plenty of supplies, out of which 
Cabeza de Vaca and his companions took but a very small 
part, and gave the rest to Alcardz and his soldiers. Alcardz 
was not satisfied with the food he received, but attempted 
to compel Cabeza de Vaca into consenting to the apprehen- 
sion of the Indians and to make them slaves. Cabeza de Vaca 
rejected Alcaraz's proposition with great indignation, from 
which a very serious quarrel resulted between himself 
and Alcaraz, causing, besides the rupture of their friendly 
relations, the separation between Cabeza de Vaca and his 
companions, from Alcaraz and his soldiers. The sa^dness 
which the conduct of Alcaraz caused Cabeza de Vaca is seen 
in his own words: 

"Alcardz requested me to summon the people of the pueblos 
who were along the bank of the river and were hiding in the 
woods of the lands: and that we should command them to 
bring what to eat, though this was not necessary, because 
they were always careful of bringing us whatever they could. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 93- 

We sent forthwith our messengers to call them, and six 
hundred persons came who brought us all the corn that they 
could and they brough in kettles with clay covers, in which 
they had buried and hidden it, and they brought us most all 
they had, but we did not wish to take from them any more 
than our dinner, and gave all the rest to the Christians that 
they might divide it among themselves; and after this, we had 
many and great disputes with them, because they wanted to 
make slaves out of the Indians we brought along, and for this 
reason, when we parted, we left many bows and turquoises 
that we had with us, and many bags and arrows, and among 
them, the five emeralds, nobody remembering them; and so 
we lost them," 

The Indians were no less surprised with the cruel conduct 
of Alcaraz, and they so informed Cabeza de Vaca telling him 
that Alcaraz and his men were not good hearted men, that 
they lied and caused damages and injuries to the Indians and 
that consequently they were not of the same nation as Cabeza 
de Vaca, for Alcaraz came from the West, and he, Cabeza de 
Vaca and his companions, came from the East; that Alcaraz 
wanted to enslave them, and he and his companions did good 
to them, curing them and treating them with good words. 

Cabeza de Vaca and his companions had not gone far when 
they were arrested by a squad of soldiers sent by Alcardz to 
carry them as prisoners to the Alcalde Cebreros in the Villa 
of San Miguel, the intention of Alcaraz being, to thus get rid 
of Cabeza de Vaca, and, in that way, imprison the Indians; 
but, as Cabeza de Vaca suspected the intentions of Alcaraz,, 
he advised the Indians to flee and not to return to their lands 
until Alcaraz had gone out of them, an advice which they 
followed without delay. When the soldiers arrived in the 
presence of Alcalde Cebreros, with Cabeza de Vaca and his 
comrades, the Alcalde attempted to coerce Cabeza de Vaca 
into yielding to the propositions of Alcaraz; but, as Cabeza de 
Vaca stood firm in not acceding, he was sent to a desert with 
his men to see if that could compel them to obey; but Cabeza 
de Vaca and his companions again stood firm in their friend- 
ship to the Indians, wherefore the Alcalde became indignant 
at them and sent them to Culiacdn so that the Alcalde of that 
place should take cognizance of the "rebellious conduct" of 



'9-4 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Cdbeza de Vaca and his companions. Speaking of his arrest 
and of the treatment he received from the two Alcaldes, 
Cabeza de Vaca thus expresses himself: 

"They sent us (under arrest) to a certain Cebreros, Alcalde, 
and with him two others, who carried us through the woods 
and depopulated places in order to keep us apart from the 
conversation of the Indians, and that we might not see nor 
know what they in fact did; wherein it appears how the 
thoughts of those men were deceived, in that we were looking 
for liberty for them (the Indians), and, when we thought we 
had it, the contrary happened, for they had agreed to go and 
fall upon the Indians whom we had sent well secured, and in 
peace; and just as they had thought, they did it; they carried 
us through those woods for three days, without water, lost 
and without road, and we all thought of dying of thirst, and 
from it seven men died, and many friends which the Christians 
had along with them could not arrive until the next day at 
noon to where we found the water on that night, and we 
traveled with them 25 leagues a little more or less, and at the 
end of them we arrived at a pueblo of Indians at peace, and the 
Alcalde who carried us left us there and he passed ahead 
three leagues more to a pueblo which was called Culiacan, 
where Melchor Diaz was Alcalde, Mayor and Captain of that 
province."' 

Concerning the treatment that Melchor Diaz gave him 
Cabeza de Vaca says: 

"And he spoke to us and treated us very well, and, in behalf 
of Governor Nuno de Guzman and his own, he offered us all he 
had and could do, and he was much grieved at the bad 
reception and treatment we had found in Alcaraz and the 
others, and he assured us that, if he had been there, all that 
was done with us and the Indians would have been avoided." 

Cabeza de Vaca and his companions remained at Culiacan 
from the beginning of May until the 15th of the same month, 
expecting to continue their journey as far as the City of 
Compostela, capital of the province and place of residence of 
Governor Nuno de Guzman, where the necessary protection 
should be given them, as the City of Compostela was at a 
distance of 900 miles from Culiacan and the country between 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 95 

the two points was not only shorn of vegetation, but even 
infested by hostile Indians. On the 15th of May, Cabeza de 
Vaca started towards Mexico accompanied by his companions 
and forty mounted men who went with them until they had 
travelled 120 miles (48 leagues), returning thence the mounted 
men, and continuing the march, Cabeza de Vaca and his 
companions in the company of six Spaniards, who carried with 
them 500 Indian slaves, reaching Compostela in the first days 
of July. Governor Guzman gave Cabeza de Vaca and his 
companions a very cordial reception providing them with food 
and clothing. Cabeza de Vaca and his companions could not 
get used, for some time, to the clothing and bedding for being 
already so accustomed to the life and habits of the Indian 
savages, they preferred to sleep on the bare ground. A few 
days after, they set out on their journe^^ arriving at the City 
of Mexico on July 25, 1536, where they were very politely 
received by the Viceroy Mendoza,andHernan Cortes, who was 
now Marquis of the Valley. In Mexico, Cabeza de Vaca gave 
a detailed account of the failure of Narvaez's expedition, his 
voyage and sufferings, all of which caused general astonish- 
ment to the Viceroy, Cortes, and the inhabitants of the city. 
From Mexico they started on April of the next year through 
Vera Cruz for Spain, Estevanico, the negro, remaining in 
Mexico. From Vera Cruz they left in the middle of the same 
month and reached Spain, August, 1587, not without having 
suffered many hardships both in the high seas and on the 
islands where they stopped and remained for a long time, 
closing, with their arrival in Spain, the longest and most 
romantic journey known in the annals of history. 

After their return to Spain in 1537, Cabeza de Vaca was 
appointed by the king, Governor and Adelantado of the pro- 
vince of "La Plata" (which today comprises three republics, 
i. e., Argentine, Paraguay and Uruguay), in South America. 

Governor Cabeza de Vaca Sails for La Plata — His Return and Death. 

On the 2nd day of December, 1540, Governor Cabeza de Vaca 
sailed from Cadiz to assume charge of his province taking 
with him four sailing ships, 400 men, 26 horses and all the 



96 ILLUSTRATKD HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

necessary provisions,* arrived at the Island of Santa Catalina, 
on the coast of Brazil on the 9thday of March, 1541,+ and after 
many hardships, arrived at the City of Asuncion, capital of 
the province, March 11, 1542, v^^here he found the Spaniards 
under Domingo Yrala in great distress. From that date until 
he returned to Spain, in December, 1545, as a prisoner, and 
the victim of intrigues on the part of Yrala and his cohorts, 
and for eight years thereafter, during which time he 
remained a prisoner, this wonderful and unfortunate man 
suffered even more than what he had suffered in his adven- 
turous journey from Florida to Mexico. On the charges 
preferred against him he was found guilty by the "Consejo de 
Indias," and was sentenced to forfeiture of his office and title 
and to exile, but upon appeal to the king, and after eight 
years, as already stated, he was vindicated, and the sum of 
2,000 "ducados" annually was allowed to him during his life. 
As to how he ended his life nothing absolutely certain is 
known; some of the ancient writers affirm that at the time of 
his death he was President of the Consulate (Consulado) in 
the City of Seviila, others affirm that he spent the last days of 
his life as a monk and RectDr or Superior of a religious order. J; 
As we said before that Cabeza de Vaca had in fact passed 
through New Mexico, the opinions of Bandelier, Bancroft and 
Twitchell to the contrary, notwithstanding, we wish, before 
closing this chapter, to furnish reasons on which we lean in 

* "A dos dias del mes de Diciembre de ano pasado de mil e 
quinientos 6 cuarenta anos ])arti e me hiee a la bela en la bayya de 
Cadiz, con cuatro nabios, quatrocientos hombres y quarenta e seys 
cavallos y yeguas, para yr a la dicha provincia del rio de la Plata." 
— Cabeza de \'aca. "JN'ozt/. y Comentarios." Siidrez Edition, Vol. 2, p. 3. 

t "A beynte nueve dias del mez de Marzo del aiio pasado de mil e 
quinientos ^ quarenta e un anos lleg^ue eon mi armada a la Ysla de 
Santa Catalina, questa en beynte 4: ocho grades en la costa del 
Brasil.""— Catena de Vaca. ^'Navf. y Co))i.'' supra, Vol. ~', p. 3. 

X "Lasmismas sombras ocultan los ultimos anos de Alvar Nunez,, 
en los Conientarios se lee que no le dieron "recompensa de lo que 
g-asto," pero Ruy Diaz de Guzman afirma que le asignaron 2,000 
ducados anuales de sueldo. Este mismo dice que murio en Seviila 
siendo Presidente del Consulado, y los anotadores de las Cartas de 
Indias ci"een que se hizo relig-ioso y falleci6 de prior en un convento de 
aquella ciudad. "— ^Wrez, "2S^au/. y Comentarios,'' Vol. 2, page II of 
Advertencia " 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 97 

differing from those authors. According to a diagram pub- 
lished by Bandeher, Cabeza de Vaca must have started from 
quite near the place where the Sabine River empties into the 
Gulf of Mexico, traveling almost all the time westward across 
the States of Texas, Chihuahua and Sonora, crossing twice 
the Yaqui River near the coast of the Gulf of California, and 
going after his second crossing of the Yaqui River a httle to 
the southeast at a little distance from the Gulf of California 
till he reached Culiacan. This diagram of Bandelier's does 
not agree with the account of Cabeza de Vaca, because, 
according to the diagram, Cabeza de Vaca must have crossed 
the Pecos River at the place of the junction of that river with 
the Rio Grande del Norte, very far in the interior of what is 
today the State of Texas; whereas Cabeza de Vaca tells in his 
narrative that he travelled many miles to the north and along 
the Pecos River (El Rio de Las Vacas as he called it). So that 
by following the Pecos River northward from the place where 
Cabeza de Vaca followed its course up stream, the conclusion 
that he arrived at the Pueblo of Zuni, is inevitable. 

Three circumstances establish the logic of this Author in 
that particular, namely: First, that after Cabeza de Vaca had 
gone back to Spain, Mendoza sent Father Marcos de Niza to 
examine the lands and pueblos, concerning which so many 
things had been related to him by Cabeza de Vaca, sending 
Estevanico as guide of Niza"s expedition, and Zuni being the 
largest pueblo to which Estevanico led the expedition, and the 
place, too, where he was assassinated: Second, Antonio de 
Espejo (the reader will see when he reads Espejo's account) 
tells us that when he was already very far in the interior of 
the country, and on the banks of the Rio Grande, he found 
Indian pueblos who told him that many years before, three 
white men and a negro, who came from the East, had passed 
through there, and that they made cures; finally this Author 
recalls the fact, that in the year 1883, when, in the City of 
Santa Fe, Capital of New Mexico, the festivities of the Tertio 
Millennium were being celebrated, the Indian governor of the 
Pueblo of Zuiii, who attended them, delivered a speech in 
which he said that the first strangers that tread the Pueblo 
of Zuni, according to the traditions of his pueblo, had been 
three white men and a negro who passed through there in a 



"98 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

westward direction, and that they performed miraculous 
cures by only placing their hands over the sick. From what 
Cabeza de Vaca, Espejo and the Indian governor have said, it 
is but very reasonable to believe that Cabeza de Vaca was in 
fact in what is today New Mexico, refuting thereby the 
theoretical opinions of Bancroft and Bandelier, Among the 
authors who assert that Cabeza de Vaca did visit New Mexico 
we cite Donaldson, Prince, Haynes and Salpointe. We shall 
now take up, in the next chapter, the expedition of Fray 
Marcos de Niza and Fray Juan de la Asuncion into New 
Mexico. 



CHAPTER IV. 



The voyages of Fray Juan de la Asuncion and of Fray Marcos de Niza 
— Niza is accompanied by Estevanico, a Friar called Onorato, and 
some Indians from New Galicia — Description of the voyage to 
Cibola (Zuni) and death of Estevanico — Niza takes possession and 
gives a name to the province — Niza s return to Mexico — Cortes 
disputes with Niza the discovery of New Mexico. 



15384539. 



Much has been said and written regarding the origin of 
Fray Marcos de Niza, many historians saying that Niza was 
originally from the City of Nizza,in the kingdom of Italy, and 
alleging that he had taken the surname from his native city; 
that is, however, a mere conjecture, as unfounded as it is 
unjustified, (since other authors assert that he was a Span- 
iard) for the name of the city is written "Nizza" while that of 
the priest is written "Niza" which makes it a proper Spanish 
name. Some others affirm that he was a Frenchman. Not- 
withstanding the difference in the name, the majority of auth- 
ors say he wasinreality an Italian. Whatever the case may be. 
Father Marcos de Niza was certainly a man of extraordinary 
intelligence, who, because of his intellectual attainments, was 
sent to America in 1531, as superior, together with other 
Franciscan priests of the same religious order to which Niza 
belonged. The year following, 1532, he accompanied Pizarro 
to Peru, returning subsequently to other points in South 
America and settling for a time in Nicaragua where he stayed 
till 1535 or 1536. 

The account given by Cabeza de Vaca in Mexico in 1536, had 
so enthused the Viceroy Mendoza that he began to meditate 
upon the fitting up of a strong expedition for discovering and 
peopling of the wonderful places which Cabeza de Vaca had 
painted with such mastery. Mendoza hesitated for a while as 
to the person worthy of his confidence, and who might be 
capable of carrying the enterprise to a happy termination. 



100 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Nuno de Guzman was no longer governor of the province of 
Nevi^ Galicia, having been replaced by Don Francisco Vasquez 
de Coronado who, on account of his relationship with families 
of noble lineage, and his being a knight of Salamanca, had 
been married in Mexico to the daughter of the governor of 
Mexico, Alonzo de Estrada, while he (Coronado) acted, in New 
Spain, as the official overseer of his majesty the king of Spain, 
wherewith he won for himself the frieiidship and regard of the 
grandees in the City of Mexico. It was at the time whenCor- 
onado tarried in Mexico as overseer, that Cabezade Vacaand 
his companions arrived in that city, and thus it was, also, that 
Coronado heard from Cabeza de Vaca'sown hps the narrative 
which the latter made (of his adventures). These consider- 
ations induced Mendoza to send Coronado to inspect all the 
lands to the north of New Galicia, with the object of ascer- 
taining whether or not what Cabeza de Vaca said was certain, 
and, in case it was so, to return to New Galicia and organize 
a military expedition. In virtue of the decision of the viceroy 
several reconnoitering trips were made to the extreme north 
of the territory which makes up today the State of Sinaloa, 
in the Mexican Republic, but none of those trips was of 
sufficient importance as to deserve a detailed mention. 
Coronado, however, thought it opportune to send an expedition 
composed of friars and some natives to push into the interior 
towards the North until they encountered the large pueblos 
which Cabeza de Vaca and his companions said they had seen, 
recommending for the task Father Fray Marcos de Niza, 
about whom he heard many favorable things. Mendoza 
accepted willingly the suggestion of Coronado, and designated 
Father Niza to carry into effect what Coronado recommended, 
while he at once forwarded to Coronado positive and specific 
instructions to be delivered to Niza. 

The Voyage of Fray Marcos de Niza 

In the City of Compostela, Tonala, Coronado delivered to 
Fray Marcos de Niza the instructions of the viceroy. Before 
Niza set out on his voyage of discovery, another priest, called 
Juan de la Asuncion, previously sent by Coronado, had already 
made a voyage and discovered the Gila River, returning to 
Mexico in October, 153S, and giving the viceroy an account of 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 101 

what he had seen, wherefore Niza was directed by the instruc- 
tions of the viceroy to follow the footsteps of Pray Juan de 
Asuncion. 

Fray Juan de Asuncion's narrative has not been published 
in historical works, and the information necessary to enable 
us to afiBrm whether or not he visited the Gila River near its 
confluence with the Colorado River or further up, is lost to us 
through the lack of that narrative. At any rate, we may be 
sure that he visited New Mexico, for, before the formation of 
Arizona into a territory, the boundaries of New Mexico on the 
West reached as far as Sonora, beyond the confluence of the 
Gila and Colorado Rivers. 

Mendoza's instructions to Niza are given verbatim in the 
second Spanish and this first English edition of this work, 
that is to say, such as they were written by Mendoza, and not 
as they were given in the first Spanish edition. In said first 
edition they were translated back by this Author from the 
English into the Spanish from the work entitled: "Papers of 
the Archaeological Institute of America," because this Author 
could not get in time the valuable document in Spanish. After 
said tirst edition had gone to press, that document, together 
with others of the greatest historical importance, reached him 
from Spain, and he can today with the highest pleasure give 
the original of the important document (although the differ- 
ence between the translation and the original is not very 
noticeable) taking it from the third volume of "Coleccion de 
Documentos InMitos Relativos al Descubrimiento, Conquista 
y Colonizacion de las Posesiones Espanolas en America y 
Oceania, ■■ from page 325. The instructions follow: 

**Instruction of Don Antonio de Mendoza, Viceroy of Nueva Espafia" 

"In the first place: As soon as you arrive at the province 
of Culiacdn, you shall exhort, and encourage the Spaniards 
that reside in the Villa of San Miguel to treat well the Indians 
that are at peace, and not to help themselves of them in 
excessive things, certifying to them and doing it so, that con- 
cessions shall be made to them and they will be remunerated 
by H. M. for the hardships that they have there undergone, 
and in me they shall have a good helper for that purpose; and 
if they do the contrary, they shall be punished and d isf avored. 



102 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

"You shall make the Indians understand that I send you, 
in the name ofH. M., in order to say that they be treated well 
and that they may know that he has been sorry for the griev- 
ances and evils that they have received; and that henceforth 
they shall be well treated, and those who shall do them harm 
shall be punished. 

"In like manner you shall certify to them that they shall 
be made slaves no longer, nor will they be taken out of their 
lands; but that they will be left free in them, without doing 
them any harm or damage; let them loose fear and know God 
our Lord, who is in heaven, and the Emperor who is placed 
by his hand on earth in order to rule it and govern it. 

"And as Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, whom H. M. has 
provided for Governor of that province, shall go with you as 
far as the villa cf San Miguel de Culiacdn, you have to advise 
me how he provides for the things of that villa, in what 
concerns the service of God Our Lord and the conversion and 
good treatment of the natives of that province. 

"And if with the help of God Our Lord and grace of the 
Holy Ghost you shall find a way to pass ahead through the 
land in the interior, you shall carry along with you Estevan 
de Dorantes as guide, whom I command to obey you in all 
and for all that you command him, as myselfsame person; 
and not doing it so, let him incur in evil plight and in the 
penalties that befall those who obey not the persons who have 
powers from H. M. to be able to command them. 

"In like manner the said governorPrancisco Vasquezcarries 
along the Indians that came with Dorantes and others that it 
has been possible to gather together in those parts, so that if 
it appears to him and to you that you take some of them in 
your company, you may do it and use them as you see it is 
fitting for the service of Our Lord. 

"You shall always endeavor to go the most securely that 
may be possible, and informing yourself in the first place if 
the Indians are at peace or at war with each others, in order 
that 3'ou may not furnish them any occasion to do any 
disorder against your person, the which shall be cause for 
proceeding against them and effect punishment; because in 
this manner, instead of going to do them good and give them 
light, it would be the contrary. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 103 

"You shall take much notice of seeing the people that 
there is there, if they are many or few, and if they are 
scattered or live together. 

"The quality and fertility of it, the temperature of the 
land, the trees and plants, the domestic and wild animals 
that it has, the kind of land, if it is uneven, or plain, the 
rivers, if they are large or small, and the stones and metals 
that there are in it; and of the things of which samples may 
be sent or brought, bring them or send them, so that H. M. 
may be advised of all. 

"Learn always if there is news about the seacoast, both 
from the northern and the southern part, because it might be 
that the land grows narrow and that a branch of the sea 
projects into the inland. And if you should arrive at the 
coast of the south sea, in the points that enter (it), at the foot 
of a tree of distinguished largeness leave letters buried (in 
the ground) of what may appear to you to be fitting to advise, 
and on such tree as where the letter remains, carve a cross 
so it may be known; in thfe same manner at the mouths of 
the rivers and in the disposition of ports carve the same sign 
of the cross on the most conspicuous trees, near the water, 
and leave there the letters, so that if I send vessels, they 
will go advised of that sign. 

"You shall always try to send advice, with Indians, of how 
you are faring and how you are received, and of what you 
may find, very particularly. 

"And if God our Lord should vouchsafe that you find some 
large town where it may appear to you that there is a good 
show to build a monastery and send religious persons who 
may attend to their conversion, you shall advise by Indians 
or return yourself to Culiacan. With all secrecy you shall 
give advice, so that, what may be fitting, may be provided 
for without alteration, so that thus, in the pacification of 
what may be found, the service of our Lord and the good of 
the people of the land may always be kept in view. 

"And, although all the land belongs to the Emperor, Our 
Lord, you shall in my name take possession of it for H. M. 
and you shall make the signs andautos that may seem to you 
to be requisite for the case; and you shall make the natives 
of the land understand that there is a God in heaven, and 



104 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

the Emperor on earth, who is to command it and govern it, 
and to whom all must be subject and serve.'" 

"D. Antonio De Mendoza." 

^'Certifications. 

"I, Fra. Marcos de Niza, of the "Observantes de San Fran- 
cisco", do say, that I received a copy of this instruction 
signed by the Most Illustrious Lord Don Antonio de Men- 
doza, viceroy and governor of New Spain, which was delivered 
to me, by command of his lordship, and in his name, by 
Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, Governor of this New 
Gahcia; which copy is taken from this instruction, "ver6o 
ad verbum", and with it was corrected and compared, with 
which said instruction I promise to comply faithfully, and 
not to go nor act against it nor against any thing therein con- 
tained, now nor at any time. And because 1 will so observe 
it and comply with it, I signed my name here in Tonala, on 
the 20th day of the month of November, of one thousand live 
hundred and thirty and eight years, where he gave and 
delivered to me in said name the said instruction, which is in 
the province of this New Galicia.'" 

"Fra. Marcos de Niza." 

From what is seen in the instructions received by Niza, 
Mendoza knew well that the Indians had suffered many 
hardships through the bad treatment given them by many 
Spaniards who, in their explorations, sought neither the 
glory of God, nor the good of their king, but rather the ruin 
of the Indians depriving them of what little they had, making 
slaves of them, and carrying them off their lands. It is also 
true that the higher authorities had more elevated senti- 
ments, and that they always felt disposed not only to civilize 
and christianize the Indians, but to make use of everything 
in their power and of all their means and faculties to protect 
the natives from the rapacity of the said conquerors and 
adventurers. This is the reason why the Cathohc Church 
figures so prominently, from the discovery of America to the 
discovery and conquest of New Mexico, in all and each of the 
grand episodes consummated in the New World, — a period 
reaching from the year 1492, when Columbus first discovered 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 105 

America, to the year 1694, when Diego de Vargas re estab- 
hshed peace among the indigenes of New Mexico, by recon- 
quering permanently that province. In this manner, also, 
is the fact explained that, in the expeditions and conquests 
into and of the New World by Spain, between the fifteenth 
and seventeenth centuries, the monks played so conspicuous 
a part. Perhaps, Columbus would have never discovered 
America, after being despised by the court of Portugal 1471, 
and even by that of Spain in 1485, if Pray Marchena, Bishop 
Diego de Deza, Cardinal Mendoza and the Dominican priests, 
and above all, Fray Juan Perez, confessor to the queen had 
not interested themselves in softening the hearts of King Fer- 
dinand and Queen Isabella, and even furnished 17,000 ducats 
from the ecclesiastical funds in order to provide Columbus 
with ships aud other necessaries for his tirst voyage. Hernan 
Cortes would not have achieved the conquest and pacification 
of the great Empire of the Moctezumas, from 1519 to 1521, 
nor discovered California in 1539, had he not had Father 
Lares on his side, in Cuba, who, knowing the designs of 
Velasquez, governor of Cuba, of arresting Cortes in the 
island of Trinidad before he set sail on the conquest of 
Mexico, secretly appraised Cortes of w^hat Velasquez was 
planning against him, whereby Cortes was enabled to hasten 
his preparations and set sail before Velasquez could imprison 
them; and even the final triumph might not have been secured 
without the prudent co-operation of Father Olmedo during 
the conquest. Thus it was that the civil authorities exercised 
a mostexcellent judgment by sendingalways at the vanguard 
of these expeditions learned and prominent ecclesiastics. 

Fray Niza Leaves Guliacan. 

Everything being in readiness Fray Marcos de Niza left 
Culiacan on the 7th day of March, 1539, accompanied, as we 
have said, by another Franciscan, Fray Onorato, Estevanico 
and some Indians. After traveling 70 leagues to the north of 
San Miguel, Niza and his men arrived at the Pueblo of Petat- 
lan, where the natives were already expecting him, because 
they had received beforehand advices of his coming from 
Coronado. It was at Petatlan that Niza had his first expe- 
rience of the troubles that awaited him. Father Onorato 



106 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO, 

having contracted sickness, Niza was obliged to leave him at 
Petatldn, and continued his journey to the North from that 
point with Estevanico and the other Indians Mendoza had sent 
from Mexico "and, in accordance with said instruction," Niza 
tells us, "I continued my journey wherever the Holy Ghost 
guided me without ray deserving it."' Of the receptions given 
him and his companions on his way to Petatlan, Niza tells us, 
"and with this companionship which I say I took my road to 
Petatldn getting on the road mdny receptions and presents 
of food, roses and other things of this kind, and houses which 
they made for me out of palm mats and branches of trees in 
all parts where there was no settlement.'" 

Niza and his men continued their journey northward in a 
parallel line along the coast of the Gulf of California until they 
arrived at a great desert between which and Petatlan he had 
been treated with great consideration and respect by the 
indigenes, who, aside from serving him food, told him that 
they came from an island which had been visited by a 
stranger (California, and the stranger was Hernan Cortes, 
El Marques del Valle,) and they also told him that there 
were thirty other smaller islands to the North, but that only 
in two of them could corn be found to eat. "These Indians, "^ 
Niza tells us, "carried strings of shells hanging from their 
necks, among which, there were some pearls, and I showed 
them a pearl that I carried as sample, and they told me there 
were some like that in the islands, but I saw none in them." 

According to recent explorations, it is believed that the 
islands, about which the Indians gave Niza information, are 
the ones that are found along the coast of Lower California 
between the mouths of the rivers Mayo and Yaqui, the two 
principal ones being known by the name of "Tiburon" Island, 
and "Angel de la Guarda" Island, from which it is seen that 
Fray Mdrcos de Niza arrived to very near the mouth of the 
Rio Mayo. After travelling for four days into the interior of 
the desert they found a tribe of Indians that had never seen 
a white man who were greatly scared at seing Niza, calling 
him "Sayota,"" which signifies, according to Niza, "a man 
descended from heaven. '" This tribe could not have been other 
than the tribe of the Pimas, or that of the Yaquis, as Father 
Juan Ortiz Zapata, S. J., affirms in his "Narrative of the 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 107 

missions which the Society of Jesus has in the Kingdom and 
Provinces of New Viscay, in New Spain," 1678 (documents for 
the History of Mexico t. 3, p. 78.) Concurring with this 
theory and conclusion, tlie Historian Ribas tells us what 
follows, speaking of Niza's voyage and in reference to the 
time when Niza saw those Indians: 

'*In the last two journeys from the sea the famous nation 
of the Hiaquis is settled ....... When the Hiaquis with their 

people inhabited this river it was in the form of encampments' 
stretched along its banks. And their tilled lands together 
with the number of these encampments must have been 
eighty in which were thirty thousand souls." 

These same Indians told Niza that, if he travelled further 
north, he would not delay much in coming to an extensive plain 
where he would find many and very large villages in which 
Indians lived who cultivated the lands, spun and wove cotton 
which they gathered from plants, and the wool that they 
clipped from the back of certain small animals which they 
had in abundance, and that from the textures they made- 
coverings, and clothing to dress themselves with; that it did 
not look like the cloth in which Niza was clad; that they also 
had metallic jewelry which they put on their ears and noses. 
Niza referring to the information thus given by the Indians,, 
says: "And I have no more news than that they told me that 
the land in the interior, fouror five journeys, where the chains 
of mountains end, becomes an open plain and of much land, 
in which they told me there were many and very large towns 
and in them are people dressed in cotton. And, showing 
them some metals that I carried myself in order to get infor- 
mation about the metals of the land, they took the gold metal 
and told me that of that the people of the plain have vases 
and that they carry hanging from their noses and ears- 
certain round things made of that gold, and that they have 
certain small shovels of it with which they scrape themselves 
and take away their sweat." Niza does not tell whether or 
not he visited the said settlements, but, from what Ribas says 
speaking of that part of Niza's voyage, there is no doubt that 
they were the Nebone Indians, or the ones from the tribe of the- 
Pimas; and that their settlements were found in what forms 
today the state of Sonora, for they were along a large river 



108 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

which could be no other than the Yaqui. Those Indians, 
according to Ribas, had a good knowledge of the science of 
agriculture for they planted and cultivated their lands using 
the water of said river for irrigation, and they dressed in 
robes of cotton and woollen cloth and of wool and well tanned 
skins of animals, and they lived in houses built of adobes in 
the form of watchtowers, in which small forts were seen 
well constructed in order to defend themselves in case of 
attack from the outside. 

The next point about which Niza speaks to us is a pueblo 
to which he came towards the end of April, after having 
traveled about 35 journeys, which is called according to 
Niza, by the Indians, "Vacapa."' In that pueblo also the 
Indians cultivated the lands raising crops of corn, beans, and 
pumpkins and other herbs, whose name Niza could not learn. 
Niza and his men remained in this pueblo a very short time 
and then continued his journey inland, being already at the 
extreme east of New Mexico and very far in of what forms 
today the Territory of Arizona; until he met an Indian en- 
campment well provided with clothing and food provisions, 
as those which Niza had seen before. These Indians gave 
Niza and his men as cordial a reception as had been given 
him by those of the first encampments and pueblos through 
which he had passed. 

Before proceeding further with the journey, it must be 
observed that Niza had sent from the pueblo of Vacapa the 
negro Estevanico, accompanied by some Indians of the ones 
brought by Niza, to go after the manner of a vanguard in 
search of other towns, to explore the land to the north, 
ordering him to send him an account of what he should see, 
and do, by means of the Indians, and telling him that he, 
Niza, would follow him very closely. "And so the said negro 
Estevan left me on Passion Sunday after dinner, staying in 
this town that I say is called "Vacapa." According to Niza's 
account, the Indians treated Estevanico with as marked a 
deference as they did Fray Marcos, himself, considering 
them as supernatural beings, — another circumstance which 
agrees with the opinion of the author of this work to the 
effect that Cabeza de Vaca, Dorantes, Castillo, and Estevanico 
had, in fact, passed through these regions, as in no other 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 109' 

way can the conduct of the Indians be explained except by 
attributing it to the cures which Cabeza de Vaca performed 
among them when they passed through there a Httle less 
than three years before this date. The good disposition with 
which the Indians were receiving the religious instructions 
which Fray Niza was continually giving them must be attrib- 
uted to the good treatment which was given them by Cabeza 
de Vaca. 

That the reader may form an idea of the lack of exactness 
of many of the English-speaking historians, which must be 
attributed to bad translations rather than to their intention 
of deceiving the candid reader, I am going to cite one, among 
the many cases wherein said translators have distorted his- 
tory. We have already seen, in the foregoing paragraphs in 
this chapter, how Father Onerato, after contracting sickness 
at the pueblo of Petatlan, turned back from that place. Fray 
Niza, accompanied by Estevanico, the negro, and the Indians 
mentioned continuing the journey. Now let the reader take 
notice of what George Parker Winship says, in his work 
entitled "The Journey of Coronado,'" quoting Castafieda. 
Referring to the orders which Niza gave to Estevan, the 
negro, when he sent him from Vacapa to explore regions 
says (translation) "after the negro had separated from the 
friars he thought of taking to himself all the credit and 
honor." It is clear, then, that that could not have been as 
Winship relates it, and as do many other Anglo-Saxon 
writers who copy the same error from his work, and who, 
taking his account as viridical, have reproduced it just as 
Winship gives it, among others the author of the "History 
of New Mexico, Illustrated," published by the "Pacific 
States Publishing Company," in 1907; while, with what we 
have reproduced from Niza's own work, "Relaci6n," we have 
proved that when Niza sent Estevanico from the pueblo of 
Vacapa there were no more friars than himself, Niza. 

After having traveled a few days Estevanico began to find 
large Indian settlements, and to look at many things that 
astonished him; wherefore he deemed it prudent to send Niza 
an account in which he was told that he had come to the 
province with Seven Cities and many other new things. He, 
therefore, sent two Indians to Vacapa with the account for 



110 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Niza, together with a very large wooden cross, and telling 
Niza that he must follow him immediately, for the inhabitants 
of those cities told him wonderful things of what could be 
discovered in the interior, and, in order to prove his words, 
sent him an Indian from those of the "Seven Cities" telling 
him that he, Estevanico, was at more than 25 journeys from 
Vacapa and giving him detailed information of the things 
which he saw in said "cities,'" how the inhabitants in said 
"Seven Cities'" were dressed and governed. Niza would not, 
perhaps, have believed the story of Estevanico had it not been 
corroborated by three Indians of another nation who arrived 
where he was on the same day in which the emissaries of 
Estevanico came. These three Indians also gave Niza inform- 
ation in regard to the said "Seven Cities.'" Niza propounded 
many questions to the Indian Estevanico had sent from the 
"Seven Cities:'" "And in order to know from him how he 
knew it, we had many questions and many answers, and I 
found him very consistent."' 

Before reaching a decision to continue the voyage, Niza 
thought first of giving thanks to God, because he was now 
beholding the realization of his dreams, Providence opening 
to him the way for the christianization of thousands of souls. 
It was on this occasion that the word "Cibola" was first 
pronounced which was the name the Indians of those districts 
gave to the province of the so-called "Seven Cities,"' which 
were nothing else than seven Indian Pueblos in the vicinity 
of the Pueblo of Zuni of which Zuni was the chief one as the 
reader will see it in Coronado's narrative in another chapter 
of this work, although some writers of recent date, among 
them the Archaeologists Gushing and Bandelier, assert that 
the word "Cibola"" must not be applied to the said seven 
pueblos collectively or singly, deriving the word from other 
sources. Ethnologists, however, are not wanting who affirm 
that the word "Cibola" signifies the seven pueblos of Zuni. 
But whatever the contention among ethnologists and archaeo- 
logists may be, it is not of such importance that much time 
and many words should be wasted in debating the term 
"Cibola." For the purposes of history it is sufficient to know 
that "Cibola"" and the "Seven Cities" were for Niza and 
Estevanico one and the same thing, and that the cities referred 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. Ill 

to were neither more nor less than the seven Pueblos of Zuni, 
Such being Niza's understanding of it, and Easter being now 
past, he continued on his way, accompanied by his Indians, 
and other Indians who had joined him, towards the lands of 
Cibola, reaching at the end of three journeys an Indian 
encampment where he was also told that Cibola was a 
province, with many pueblos, and that it was not very far 
from there adding that still beyond Cibola there were other 
large and numerous pueblos which were called "Marata," 
"Acusa" and 'Totonteac," where they were accustomed to go 
often to trade with the inhabitants of those pueblos from 
whence they brought turquoises and many other things that 
were to be found in those pueblos. These Indians believing 
that Niza possessed the faculty of healing the sick, as Cabeza 
de Vaca had done, brought to him many sick persons to be 
cured. "And they brought me the sick to cure, and tried to 
touch the vestments with which I read the gospel. They gave 
me some cowhides so well tanned and adorned that they 
seemed made by men of much culture, and all said they came' 
from Cibola." 

Niza continued his journey following the advice of the 
Indians whom he daily met with, traveling for several days 
between mountains and plains though there are historians 
who state that he travelled along the bank of the Sonora 
River, but such authors do not explain how it was that, if 
Niza was travelling beside that river, he makes no mention of 
it nor of the lands watered by said river. On the eighth day 
Niza reached a large town which seemed to him of sufficient 
importance to take possession of and he did so, as he tells 
us: "Here I set up two crosses and took possession in 
accordance with the instruction, because that land appeared 
to me better than the one remaining behind, and that it was 
fitting thence to make the act (auto) of possession.'" Thence 
he continued travelling northward without meeting with any 
Indian pueblos, but with many encampments where the 
Indians lived scattered in houses, the last one of which lay 
beside a rivulet where Niza halted as guest, because there 
were there more inhabitants, four days after he had been atthe 
first encampment. "The next day I entered the wilderness, 
and where food was to be had, I found ranches and plenty to 



112 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

eat; close to a creek at nightfall I found houses and also food 
and so I had it four days I was in the wilderness." In this 
pueblo Niza noticed that the indigenes observed his gray cloth 
habit very closely touching it with their hands wherefore 
the following conversation which Niza relates to us took place 
between himself and the indigenes: 

"And I wore a dress of gray cloth called Saragosa, which 
Francisco de Coronado. governor of New Galicia, ordered for 
me; and the lord of this pueblo and other Indians touched the 
habit with their hands and said to me that there was of that 
(stuff) in Totonteac and that the natives there dressed in it, at 
which I laughed and said if it was not of those cotton robes 
which they wore and they told me: "Do you think that we 
do not know that what you wear and what we wear is different? 
Know, then, that in Cibola all the houses are full of this 
clothing that we wear; but in Totonteac there are some small 
animals from which they clip that from which this (stuff) 
that you wear is made. I was astonished, because I had not 
heard any such thing until I arrived here, and desired to be 
informed very particularly about it, and they told me that 
the animals are of the size of the greyhounds of Castile that 
Estevan carried along. They say that there are many of 
them in Totonteac. I could not ascertain what species of ani- 
mals they were."' 

Prom this it may be inferred that those Indians kept 
domesticated sheep or there was an abundance of wild ones in 
those mountains. At least, no other conclusion can be drawn. 
So far as the conduct of Estevanico was concerned, Niza was 
beginning to feel somewhat anxious, for, although Estevanico 
daily sent him emissaries informing him of all he was doing 
and seeing, and, although he, further, left, in all the points 
through which Niza had to pass, everything prepared before- 
hand for the reception of Niza, he, Estevanico, had extended 
his voyage beyond what he was permitted to do by Niza's 
instructions. Yet Niza cherished the hope of again seeing 
Estevanico, and with that object in view he hastened his steps 
until he reached another Indian village in which he found out 
that its inhabitants had very good knowledge of the riches of 
Cibola, of the customs of its inhabitants, the architecture of 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 113 

their dwellings; they gave him similar information about the 
pueblo of Totonteac. Describing his conversation with those 
Indians Niza tell us: 

"There was as"much talk here about Cibola as in New Spain 
about Mexico, and in Peru about Cuzco, and they related as 
particularly the style of its houses, and streets and squares 
as persons that had been there many times, and that they 
brought from there the fine things that they had gained by 
their labor, as those behind. I told them that it was not 
possible that the houses should be of the style they said; to 
make me understand it, they took earth and ashes and poured 
water on them, and showed me in what manner they placed 
the stones and how they raised the building up by putting 
together that (earth and ashes) and the stones till they raised 
it high; I asked if the men had wings to go up to those lofts; 
they laughed, and pointed to the ladder as well as I could 
point to it, and they would take a stick and place it over their 
heads and said that such was the height from loft to loft. 
I had here also information of the wool cloth of Totonteac 
and they say that the houses are like those of Cibola and 
better and many more, and that it is a very large city and 
has no end." 

Niza Leaves His Road and Marches in Search of the South Sea. 

From this point, Niza tells us, on a'^.count of the Indians 
having informed him that the coast of the sea turned around 
those nearby places, he made his voyage, without loss of 
time, to ascertain the veracity of the Indians, with the result 
he indicates: 

"Here I learned that the coast turns sharply to the west, 
for, as far as this first wild country that I crossed, the coast 
was always pushing into the north; and as it is a thing that 
matters a good deal (to know) if the coast turns, I wanted to 
know it, and so I went in search of it, and I saw clearly that 
at 35 degrees it turns to the west of which I had no less joy 
than of the good news of the land." 

After returning from the coast to the villa from which he 
had started, he stayed there for a short time, undertaking 
again the voyage with firm determination not to stop until 



114 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

he got to Cibola, which was distant from there about 15 or 20 
journeys, which he commenced to travel, as he says himself: 

'"The three days having passed, a great many people got 
together in order to go with me from whom I took as many 
as thirty of the chiefs, very well dressed with the turquoise 
collars which some of them wore turned six times around 
(their necks); and together with these I took the necessary 
people for carrying the food for them and me, and I took the 
road." 

This must have been on the tirst days of the month of May, 
for on the last da.y of that month, Niza, being almost at the 
gates of the land of Cibola, received very bad news brought 
to him by some Indians of the ones who had gone with Este- 
vanico, who told him that Estevaniao and his men had arrived 
in Cibola, but that because he had misbehaved with the 
Indians of those lands, the inhabitants of Cibola had assas- 
sinated him together with many of his companions. About 
the tragic end of Estevanico the same Indians said that 
when Estevanico and his men had arrived in Cibola he had 
sent to the chief of the town a pumpkin as s^^mbol of peace, 
and requesting to be received in the town, but that the chief 
had refused to receive him ordering him not to arrive at the 
town under penalty of his own destruction, but that Este- 
vanico, in spite of the answer of the chief, kept on ahead, till 
he came to the edge of the town, to which the}' did not allow 
him to enter, taking away from him whatever he had with 
him; that the next day they had attacked Estevanico and his 
men killing many of them, among whom was Estevanico. 

This unexpected news greatly saddened Niza, but, wishing 
to become satisfied of what had happened, continued the 
journey, and, when he had traveled for one daj^ he met other 
messengers who came fleeing, and who confirmed the tirst 
news, whereof he shed tears of grief as he himself relates it 
in these words: 

"And going along our road, a day's journey from Cibola, 
we met two other Indians of the ones who had gone with 
Estevan who were coming all smeared with blood and with 
many wounds, and as they arrived, both they and those who 
were with me commenced to weep so much, that out of pity 
and fear they made me cry also; and the voices were so 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 115 

many tliat they did not allow me to inquire for Esteban, nor 
what had happened to them, and I pleaded with them to be 
still that one might know what had passed and they said how 
could they be still, since they knew that out of their parents, 
children and brothers more than three hundred men were 
dead of those who went with Estevan. And that they would 
not dare to go to Cibola as they used to.''' 

All that, notwithstanding, and the danger to which he was 
exposing his life Niza continued his voyage accompanied by 
a few Indians who came with him, with the object of seeing 
with his own eyes the so much lauded magnificence of the 
land of Cibola, a thing he did by arriving at a high hill from 
which he could see the mentioned city. Let us hear him 
relate himself the impression which Cibola made on him: 

"With which and with my Indians and tongues I continued 
on my way so far as to get a sight of Cibola which is situated 
on a plain by the side of a round mound. It has a very tine 
pueblo appearance, the best I have seen in these parts; the 
houses are after the style the Indian told me, all of stone 
with lofts and roofs, so it appeared to me from the hill top 
on which I stopped to see it. The population is larger than 
that of the City of Mexico; sometimes I was tempted to go 
and see it, because I knew that I risked only my life, and 
this I offered to God the day I commenced rhe journey. At 
last I feared, considering my peril, that if I died, no infor- 
mation could be had of this land, which, in my opinion, is the 
largest and best of all the ones discovered." 

Niza Takes Possession; and Gives the Province its First Name. 

After admiring the grandeurs of Cibola, Niza took formal 
possession of the province of Cibola, and, together with it, of 
Totontiac and other pueblos which he had till then discovered 
making a mound of rocks among which he placed a wooden 
cross in the name of the King of Spain giving to the lands 
thus discovered the name of "New Kingdom of San Fran- 
cisco,"' and returning thence by hurried journeys to Culiacan 
without stopping at any other place till he reached the City of 
Mexico, where he arrived accompanied by Coronado on the 
first days of the month of September 1539, giving Viceroy 
Mendoza the narrative to which we have all along been refer- 



116 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

ring. That Cibola was the pueblo of Zuiii there is no doubt as 
it is so proved by Coronado who tells us in his narrative that 
it was there that Estevanico was killed. 

There is nothing noteworthy or extraordinary in Niza's 
voyage to Cibola, nor is it seen that any advantage from such 
a voyage resulted either to religion or to the King. On the 
contrary the woeful end of Estevanico and the great mortality 
which the indigenes of Cibola caused on the Indians that 
accompanied Estevanico is the only incident which gave to 
Niza's voyage the historical value it enjoys; as for the rest, 
it was as void of fruit, as the one made a year before, a little 
more or less, by Fray Juan de la Asuncion to Gila, and of 
which Niza makes no mention either directly or indirectl^'^, 
doing thus a grave injustice to Father Asuncion by his omis- 
sion to say anything about him. 

Cortes Claims the Honor. 

In spite of there being not much glory, as we have said, in 
the voyage of Niza, even he, Niza, had to undergo the effects 
of envy, on knowing that the Marquis of El Valle, the con- 
queror of Mexico, Hernan Cortes, accused him of lying, 
claiming that to him, Cortes, oelonged the honor of having dis- 
covered the lands of Cibola, and charging Niza of being an 
imposter. The rabid, cruel, and unfounded accusation of 
Cortes is as follows: 

"And at the time I came from the land the said Fray Mar- 
cos spoke with me while I was at New Spain and I gave him 
information of this said land and the discovery of the same, 
because I had in mind sending him in my vessels in search 
and conquest of said coast and land, because it seemed as 
though he understood something of the things pertaining to 
navigation; the said friar communicated this to the viceroy, 
and WMth his leave, it is said, he went by land in pursuit of 
the same coast and land which I had discovered and which 
was and is of my conquest; and after the said friar returned 
he published, it is said, that he came in sight of said land; 
which I deny he has seen and discovered; the said friar has 
rather said and says that what he relates to have seen was 
through the narrative I made him of the information that I 
had from the Indians I brought from said land of Santa 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 117 

Cruz; for, all that said friar is said to relate, is the same 
thing the Indians told me; and in having put himself for- 
ward in this matter, the said Fr. Marcos feigning and relat- 
ing what he does not know nor saw, he did no new thing, 
for he has done it many other times, and it is his habit, as is 
well known, notorious in the provinces of Peru and Guate- 
mala, and this court will be sufficiently informed of it, if it 
be necessary." 

The weight of Cortes' word had for a long while the effect 
which he desired (although Cortes knew in his conscience 
that the accusation which he brought against Niza was noth- 
ing but a malicious calumny) as there were many who 
believed it and reproduced it everywhere, exposing thus the 
good name of Pray Niza to the censure and curses of many, 
until, unable to remain longer in silence. Father Niza appealed 
to his superior in order to be able to prove the truth of his 
narrative, and vindicate his honor both of which Cortes was 
assailing. At this period the superior or provincial of the 
Seraphic order in Mexico was Fray Antonio de Ciudad 
Rodrigo, who emphatically and deservedly gave Cortes the 
lie by publishing a document in which he says: 

"I say that it is true that I sent Fra Marcos de Niza, priest, 
friar, presbyter, and religious and such in all virtue and 
religion that he was, by me and my brothers, the selected 
deputies, to consult on arduous and difficult matters, approved 
and held tit and sufficient to make this journey and discovery, 
as much on accountof theabove saidsufficiencyof hisperson, 
as well as on account of his learning not only in theology but 
also in cosmography and in the maritime art." 

The author requests the reader to fix his mind on the his- 
torical dates which he has already read in this work. The 
voyage of Cabeza de Vaca and his companions (1535-36); the 
voyage of Fray Juan de Asuncion (1538); the voyage of Fray 
Marcos de Niza (1539); of which we treated in this chapter, 
and the dates of the voyages of Coronado (1540); Fray Ruiz, 
(1582); Antonio de Espejo, (1583); Humana, (1585); Onate, 
(1597); Expulsion of Otermin (1680); and entry of De Vargas, 
(1692), which he will read in the subsequent chapters, so he 
may be able better to analyze with the author the discrepan- 
cies to all appearances irreconcilable between the works we 



118 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

have already cited and those of Juan Bautista Pino, (an 
illustrious son of New Mexico during the governments of 
Spain and Mexico), "Noticias Historicas," that of Don An- 
tonio Barreiro, "Ojeada sobre Nuevo Meiico,"and that of 
Don Jose Agustin Escudero, "Estadistica de Varios Esta- 
dos," all of them authors of renown, with respect to what 
they affirm attributing to Ruiz the discovery of New Mexico: 
saying that the Indian insurrection in New Mexico was in 
1644, that De Vargas reconquered New Mexico in 1624, or 
twenty years before the expulsion or retreat of Otermin 
according to Pino. 



CHAPTER V. 



Futile Efforts of Nuno Beltran de Guzman to Discover Cibola — Founda- 
tion of Culiacan and the Province of New Calicia by Cuzman — 
Tradition Concerning the "Seven Cities '-- Diego de la Torre 
Successor to Cuzman — Coronado Successor to Diego de la Torre — 
Mendoza Undertakes the Discovery of Cibola — Coronado and His 
Expedition — The Result and Return of the Expedition — All of it 
a Failure — Fathers Juan de Padilla and Juan de La Cruz, the 
First Martyrs of New Mexico. 



In Chapter IV the name of Nuno de Guzman is frequently 
mentioned as the official who was in charge of the province 
of New Galicia. He was, in fact, the founder and conqueror 
of that province, although Hernan Cortes claimed, as he had 
in the case of the voyage of Fray Niza, the glory of having 
been himself the discoverer of the territory of New Galicia, 
from which the result was that the enmity between Guzman 
and Cortes became mortal, for the reason that in 1522 
Guzman was one of Cortes' accusers in the celebrated case 
in which Cortes was tried in the City of Mexico for the crime 
of having strangulated his wife (an accusation which neither 
Guzman, nor the other enemiesof Cortes were able to prove.) 
The reader must know the history of Guzman with reference 
to the discovery and colonization of New Galicia for the 
reason that New Galicia had been one of the principal start- 
ing points for the first voyages that were made for the dis- 
covery, conquest, and colonization of New Mexico. 

Vei-y few historians give us the full name of Guzman, all 
being satisfied with calling him only Nuno de Guzman; his 
full name, however, was "Nuno Beltrdn de Guzman". With 
this explanation the reader will know of whom it is spoken 
in the histories when he reads this name in full or partially. 

In 1526 Guzman received his appointment as governor of 
Pdnuco taking charge of the office the next year; at the end 
of the same year he was promoted to the position of presi- 
dent of the tribunal of the "Audiencia". As president he 
was cruel, despotic, and tyrannous against the poor natives. 



120 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

whom henotonly illtreated,but,after making them slaves, sold 
them as animals. His conduct in that particular caused 
general indignation, a powerful protest being raised against 
him in which Bishop Zumdrraga was a prominent figure. 
The protest was sent directly to the king, and Guzman, in 
the interim, arrogated to himself the authority of an 
authorized discoverer, raising an army of 20,000 men com- 
posed of Aztec and Tlascalan Indians and 400 Spaniards with 
which, by his own accord, he left Mexico in the fall of 1529 
to explore the regions of the extreme north of New Spain, 
or the land of the "Seven Cities" which Cor'ies claimed to 
have previously discovered. 

Throughout all his march to the North he desolated the 
settlements and plantations of the Indians and punished them 
severely and inhumanly. In this manner he conquered a 
great portion of the territory till he reached the site where 
the City of Guadalajara now stands. There he built a villa 
giving the place the name of Tonald. Next he founded the 
towns of Santiago de Compostela and San Miguel in Culiacan, 
and the Villa of Tepic in what is today the State of Sinaloa. 
Satisfied with what he had thus far done, he returned in 1531 
to Mexico where he met with a new "audiencia"' which called 
him to account for his conduct; but he i-efused, wherefore 
Hernan Cortes, who was at the time governor of the province, 
sent Captain Luis de Castillo to arrest him, but Guzman by a 
clever trick not only captured Castillo, but made him and all 
his force which consisted of 100 men, prisoners. In 1523 he 
was destituted of the title of governor of Panuco, but it seems, 
notwithstanding, that he continued acting as said governor to 
1536, for we have already seen in the preceding chapter that 
he was governing New Galicia when Cabeza de Vaca and his 
companions arrived at Culiacan in 1536. Eight years after 
that expedition, Guzman was imprisoned and punished, Don 
Diego de la Torre succeeding to the command. Diego de la 
Torre was succeeded by Francisco Vasquez Coronado as 
governor of New Galicia. 

The narrative which Niza made of his voyage caused a great 
deal of animation in the viceroy and inhabitants of the city, 
and, according to Suarez de Peralta, "the hubbub was such 
that nothing else was spoken of The greed which the 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 121 

news of the Seven Cities infused into all was so great that not 
only the viceroy and the Marquis raised their feet to go there, 
but all the land, and so much so that the soldiers sought as a 
favor to go there, and got the due permission; and it was such 
that they sold it among themselves without thinking if the 
one who had it but that it was already a title at least, because 
the friar, who had come from there, so recommended it that 
he said it was the best thing there was in the world. Accord- 
ing as he painted it, it must have been the terrestrial paradise 
In all this he said the truth." 

Mendoza became so enthused with Niza's narration that on 
the moment he determined to form a new and formidable 
expedition causing by means of his prestige, the promotion of 
Fray Marcos Niza to the position of superior provincial of the 
Franciscan Friars and in obtainingpermissionfromthatorder, 
that Niza should go out again with the expedition as chaplain. 
It did not take long to tit up an army of 300 Spaniards and 800 
Indians; among the Spaniards there were many of noble de- 
scent,little or nothing used to military lifeand the inclemency 
of the weather, wherefore they suffered untold hardships, as 
will be afterwards seen. Don Francisco Vasquez de Coronado 
was appointed captain general of the expedition, but the 
appointment of Coronado was not received with satisfaction 
neither by the army nor by the inhabitants of the capital, 
at least, so says Castaneda: 

"He (Mendoza) paid more attention to private business 
than to the high responsibilities of his otiicial position, and 
so it was that he decided on selecting Coronado, not on 
account of any merits Coronado had, but rather on account 
of his influence, as a relative to the family of Alonzo de 
Estrada, as we have seen, who, it is said, is a son of his 
Catholic majesty, Don Fernando. When this narrative closes 
it will be seen that he lacked both judgment and good tact." 

Pedro de Alvarado Figures in Coronado s Entry. 

Mendoza believed, indeed, that the riches of New Mexico 
were really fabulous, and that, in order to remove any secret 
ambitions of Cortes, it was necessary to employ some 
sagacity by selecting, besides Coronado, the dearest of 
Cortes' captains, or Don Pedro de Alvarado, who had also 



122 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

made some efforts to discover and conquer the territory in 
question. Owing to his wonderful tact and his unequalled 
sagacity he was able to get what he desired, and he organ- 
ized a company consisting of himself, Coronado and Pedro 
de Alvarado. The contract, made at the village of Tiripitio 
begins with these words: "In the name of God, Amen: let 
it be patent to all that the present letter of partnership 
might see how at the pueblo of Tiripitio, of New Spain, on 
Monday, the twenty-ninth day of the month of November,, 
of the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ, the year One 
Thousand Five Hundred and Forty, there being present the 
very illustrious lord, Don Antonio de Mendoza, viceroy and 
governor by H. M. in this New Spain, and president of hi& 
Royal Audience who resides in the City of Mexico, and the 
very magnificent lord Adelantado Don Pedro de Alvarado, gov- 
ernor by H.M. of the Provinces of Guatemala and Honduras." 
After describing the things that were expected on Alvarado's 
part, in the discovery that should be made in the "Merced 
de Sur" (Southern Grant) the contract recites that the said 
lord viceroy has sent Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, gov- 
ernor and captain general of New Galicia, in the name of 
H. M., by land, with men on foot and on horseback and 
ammunitions and provisions, to bring to the service of God 
(sic) and of H. M. the lands and provinces and peoples that 
Father Fra Marcos de Niza and others, sent by his lordship,, 
discovered." According to the contract, Mendoza was to 
receive "the third part," Coronado was satisfied "with the 
gratification and grant in conformity with his services," 
that the King "should vouchsafe" to make him, and, from 
that compensation, Coronado had to give to Alvarado "the 
fifth part of all in the profits in what is thus done to pacify 
and discover the said Francisco Vasquez de Coronado and 
captains and men." 

The result of Coronado's voyage was, as will be seen, a 
complete failure, and that of Alvarado was even more disas- 
trous for, besides loosing the nine ships which he had bought 
for the enterprise, death surprised him unexpectedly before 
realizing the object of his dreams — wherein the truth of the 
adage is seen that "man proposes and God disposes." Let 
us now turn back to the place where we left Mendoza and 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 123 

Coi'onado getting the preparations in readiness to start on 
the famous voyage. 

It was at once proceeded to the appointment of under-offi- 
cers after this manner: Pedro de Tovar, genera) Ensign, Cap. 
tains: Pedro de Guevara, nephew of CountOnate, Garcia Lopez 
deCardenas, Rodrigo Maldonado, brother in-law to the duke of 
"EI Infantado," Diego Lopez and Diego Gutierrez, all of them 
of the cavalry corps. The captain general appointed, in 
addition, and at his own responsibility, Juan de Saldivar, 
Francisco deObando, JuanGallegos, and Melchor Diaz. Other 
gentlemen who figured prominently in the expedition, though 
not as officers, were Sirs Don Alonso Manrique de Lara, 
Don Lope deUrrea, Gomez Suarez de Figueroa, Luis Rami- 
res de Vargas, Juan de Soto Mayor, Francisco Gorballan 
y Castaneda, the historian of the expedition. To Don Pablo 
de Melgosa was entrusted the care of the infantry forces, 
and to Don Hernando de Alvarado, that of the mounted force, 
both with the rank of Captains; there were some others more 
whom Castaneda does not name. He says: 

"It would be good if I could name them all, so it might be 
seen that I was right in saying that this was a company of 
the most brilliant persons that had ever assembled to go in 
search of new lands, their worst misfortune being to be under 
the orders of a captain general who had left in New Spain 
valuable property, a handsome and noble wife, circumstances 
that contributed greatly to the failure of the enterprise." 

Soon after his army had been organized, he set out on his 
march to the City of Compostela, the capital of New Galicia, 
accompanied by the Viceroy Mendoza, in which place the 
army finally assembled. 

As Coronado believed, from the information given him by 
Niza, that his voyage should be made along and close to the 
sea coast, he ordered Don Herucindo de Alarcon to set sail 
towards Jalisco with two vessels that were at the port of 
Navidad in the coast of the south sea, and to take up from 
there equipments and provisions tor the army. The viceroy 
accompanied Coronado in his voyage to Compostela stopping 
at the Town of Pascuaro on the first day of the year 1540. 

Thence they continued their march till they arrived at 
Compostela where the army already awaited him and received 



124 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OP NEW MEXICO. 

him with the honors corresponding to his title and rank. A 
little after his arrival he assigned his captains to their 
respective commands. At this time, Don Cristobal de Onate 
was the officer in command of the province of New Galicia. 
The next day the viceroy caused the troops to be drawn up 
and addressed the soldiers in patriotic and eloquent phrases, 
exhorting them to obey their general in all and everything, 
and reminding them of the many benefits that would redound 
to their country from the success of the expedition, of the con- 
version of the inhabitants of those unknown lands bringing 
thereby additional glory for H. M., and assuring them that 
they could rely upon his favor and patronage. At the close 
of the viceroy's address the army gave their oath of obedience 
concerning which Castaneda says: 

"When he (the viceroy) had tinished, the captains and 
soldiers gave him their oath with their hands placed upon the 
missal saying that they would obey their general in everything 
he commanded them during the expedition, a thing they 
faithfully complied with. The next day the march began with 
the standards unfurled accompanying the viceroy for two 
days."' 

A few days after they had started on their march, the 
nobles, who were not accustomed to that kind of life, began to 
suffer a great deal, and, to be relieved from, the heavy weight 
they carried on their shoulders, they commenced to give and 
throw away many things necessary for the journey. Noth- 
ing worthy of mention happened for several da^^s, except an 
encounter which Lope de Samaniego had with a party of 
Indians whom he and other soldiers followed, without any 
authority and without precaution, the outcome being that he 
was mortally wounded in the head dying instantly and leaving 
that portion of the army without a captain. When Coronado 
learned of the tragical end of Lope de Samaniego he caused 
all the Indians, supposed to have taken part in the encounter, 
to be hanged. 

At this point the Captains Melchor Diaz, and Juan de Saldi- 
var returned from a journey of exploration. They had been 
sent out under secrecy by Coronado to explore the regions of 
the north with the end of ascertaining the truth or falsity of 
the statements Niza had made, Diaz and Saldivar gave Coro- 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 125 

nado a secret report; but that, notwithstanding, it was 
learned that the report they had made did not tally with 
what Niza had said, wherefore great dissatisfaction was felt 
which greatly discouraged the soldiers, who were only calmed 
by the promises Fray Marcos de Niza made them, that they 
were going to verify with their own eyes what he had said, 
giving them atthesametimean exaggerated description of i-he 
wealth they were going to find. Quiet being restored to their 
spirits, the army continued its march towards Culiacdn and 
when they were about two leagues from the place, it being 
Easter Eve, the inhabitants of the town came out to meet him 
requesting Coronado not to enter the city until the next day 
in the morning. All that v^as a plan of Coronado, for he had 
arranged beforehand a sham battle in which the next day 
the inhabitants of the town had to come out in arms to meet 
and give him battle compelling him thus to take the town by 
assault, a thing which was carried out the next day, and 
Coronado thereby gave his soldiers a true and realistic illus- 
tration of what they might expect to get further on. Of 
course, Coronadotriumphed, and he took the town without any 
loss other than the hand of an artilleryman blown by a cannon 
ball through his own carelessness. In the city the army was 
treated with marked hospitality, and, after staying 15 da3^s 
in the city, the general set out on a vanguard march accom- 
panied by 50 mounted men, some infantry soldiers, and 
many of the friendly Indians, leaving the army under the 
command of Tristan de Arellano with orders to follow 15 
days after. Before Coronado's departure a curious incident 
ocurred which Castaiieda relates to us in these words: 

"Before the departure of the general a thing occurred worth 
mentioning. A young soldier named Trujillo tried to make 
us believe that, while he was bathing in the river he had had 
a vision in which the devil had told him that, if he killed the 
general, he would be able to marry his wife, Doiia Beatriz, 
and that he would receive, to boot, great riches and many 
other valuable things. This caused Father Niza to preach 
several sermons accusing the devil of doing that, because, 
jealous of the good which was going to result from that 
journey, he wanted, by this means, to disorganize the army. 
The incident did not end there, for the other priests who were 



126 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

going with the army wrote inmediately to their monasteries 
in Mexico about what had happened, from which a great deal 
of fear and strange rumors resulted. "" 

The vision of Trujillo was nothing more than a simple trick 
of his in order not to continue any longer with the expedition, 
as Coronado found it out after the spirits of the soldiers had 
calmed down; wherefore he severely reprimanded Trujillo, 
ordering him not to keep on any longer with the expedition, a 
thing which left Trujillo very well satisfied on account of the 
good success of his buffoonery. 

Coronado was accompanied in the vanguard by Niza and 
the other friars, and, after three days journeys, one of the 
priests, Fray Antonio Victoria, accidentally had his leg hurt; 
the general sent him to Culiacan that he might accompany 
the army. For several days Coronado traveled passing 
through Indian settlements without experiencing any 
difficulty with them, for the Indians had already known Fray 
Marcos de Niza, and afterwards Melchor Diaz and Juan 
Saldivar, who, as we have said, had gone secretly through 
those lands giving the Indians good treatment till they arrived 
at Chichilticalli, the last town they found, there being thence 
to tha north nothing but arid lands and large deserts which 
Coronado had to traverse, amid great discouragement, on 
account of the unfavorable perspective before him notwith- 
standing what had been told him by Niza and the Indians who 
accompanied Estevanico. A thing that contributed largely 
to Coronado's discouragement was the appearance of Chichil- 
ticalli which had been so exaggerated that he had hoped to 
^nda people advanced in civilization, whereas he found only 
a house without a roof built of red earth. 

According to Castaneda the word "Chichilticalli" signifies 
"Red House," whence he infers the reason why the Indians 
called the place Chichilticalli. After fifteen days of travel he 
found the river to which he gave the name of "Colorado 
River" on account of its red, muddj^ waters. This w^as no 
other than the Zuiii River and the place where Coronado saw 
it was eight miles from the Pueblo of Zuiii. Here the Span- 
iards saw for the first time two Indians of a different aspect 
from the ones they had seen all along their way. These 
Indians started on a precipitate run to carry the news of 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO, 127 

the arrival of the Spaniards to the Pueblo of Zuni; that being 
suffiojent cause for alarm for Coronado and his men. So on the 
next day early in the morning, when they were already near 
the pueblo, for they had spent the night close to it, they met 
with a very large number of painted and plumed Indians who 
appeared before him in warlike mood amid so many whoops 
and yells, that many of the nobles who accompanied Coronado 
were so scared that they placed their saddles on their horses 
with the back part to the front, as Castaneda declares, but 
the experienced soldiers, encouraged by their general, and 
used to fight the Indians, mounted their horses and in battle 
array charged the Indians w^ho fled in complete disorder. 
The next day they reached without any molestaticm by the 
Indians, the first of the seven pueblos which the Indians 
•called Hawikuh, it being no other, according to Castaneda, 
than the Pueblo of Zuiii itself, and one of the seven which 
Coronado mentioned in a letter which he wrote that very 
day to Viceroy Mendoza, commencing thus: "From the 
province of Cibola and this City of Granada, August 3d, 1540."- 
Concerning what the Spaniards found in Cibola they were 
dissatisfied, charging Father Niza with having lied and 
exaggerated the real situation, Castaneda says: 

"The next day we entered inhabited land all in very good 
shape, and when we had seen the first pueblo which was 
Cibola the curses hurled against Fray Niza were so many 
that I had to pray to God to protect the priest.'" 

According to the description of this pueblo given by Cas- 
taneda, it must have had about 200 warriors, its adobe houses 
of from three to four stories, each house with but few 
rooms and no yards; the two Indians we have already men- 
tioned who had brought the new^s of the arrival of the Span- 
iards caused such an alarm that all the Indians of the other 
six pueblos were there congregated in a seemingly bellicose 
mood. Coronado ordered them to surrender. They refused 
that, refusing, at the same time, to accept the peace which 
Coronado, through the medium of interpreters, offered them. 
That gave Coronado an excuse to order an assault upon the 
village, a thing the troops did at the cry of "Santiago."' 
They charged upon the Indians, causing them a complete 
rout, and taking the village without any more difficulty. In 



128 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OP NEW MEXICO. 

the fray, however, which was quite obstinate, the general 
received a stone wound on the head which unhorsed him, 
and he would have been killed by the Indians had it not been 
for the timely service rendered him by Don Garcia Lopez de 
Cardenas and Don Hernando de Alvarado, who threw them- 
selves over his body in order to save him. receiving them- 
selves the stone blows directed at him. With the exception 
of this incident, the issue of the battle w/as decisively in favor 
of the Spaniards, who took, thereupon, possession of the 
pueblo and of the large quantity of provisions therein found. 
With the taking of Zuni, the whole province became pacified 
and subjugated. 

Coronado remained there for a time in hopes of receiving 
news from the army and of the result of the voyage of Don 
Hernando de Alarcon, who had been ordered, as we have 
seen, to go to the port of Jalisco after equipments and pro- 
visions for the army. Don Tristan de Arellano left Culiacan 
15 days after the departure of Coronado following, more or 
less, the route that had been followed by Cabeza de Vaca, 
and arriving at a place which Cabeza de Vaca had named 
"Corazones," because the Indians had offered him hearts on 
his arrival. This place, according to historians, was a village 
of Indians which was situated where the city of Ures, in the 
state of Sonora, is situated today. There Arellano founded 
a village to which he gave the name of "San Ger6nimo de los 
Corazones," but as he could not maintain himself in the vil- 
lage he changed it to another place in the valley which the 
Spaniards named "Senora." From that place Arellano sent 
Don Rodrigo de Maldonado to the coast in search of Alarcon. 
Maldonado returned without meeting Alarcon, but bringing 
with him an Indian so tall in stature that the tallest soldier 
reached scarcely to his breast. This Indian was from the 
Island of Tiburon, of the tribe of the "Sires," From there 
Arellano went to the valley of Senora where he was staying 
about the middle of October, when the emissaries Melchor 
Diaz and Juan Gallego arrived with instructions from Coro- 
nado to hasten the march of the army — Juan Gallego having 
orders to proceed thence to Mexico to deliver to Mendoza 
the report which Coronado sent him, and Melchor Diaz being 




Most Rev, Juan B. Salpointe, second Archlushop of Santa Fe, Successor of 
Archbishop Laniy— See his life, post. 



130 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

instructed to go as far as the coast in search of the vessels of 
Alarcon. 

By the middle of September, Arellano started with the 
army from the point of Senora to Cibola, Melchor Diaz 
remaining in the latter place in command of 80 men in order 
to garrison it and await to learn something from Alarcon. 
Fray Marcos de Niza accompanied tjallego and Melchor Diaz 
down to Senora, and thence continued his journey with Juan 
Gallego to Mexico, which he was compelled to do, because 
Coronado and the other Spaniards felt themselves offended, 
charging Niza with having lied to them in the information he 
gave in Mexico in reference to the fabulous riches of gold 
and precious stones, fine dresses and immense cities he had 
promised them they would find in Cibola. After the depart- 
ure of the army, Melchor Diaz undertook a trip to the coast 
accompanied bj 25 of the best soldiers, leaving Diego de 
Alcaraz in command of the village. After traveling 150 
leagues, Melchor Diaz arrived at>a town inhabited by real 
giants of whom he tells us himself what follows: 

"They go naked and live in subterranean caves with no 
other rqofs than a sort of slender straw-thatched ones which 
their huts have in their principal opening. They go into 
them through one side and go out by the other. More than 
a hundred persons, large and small, sleep in one hut. A 
single one-of them can carry a load on his head of over 300 
lbs. On one occasion our people w^anted to bring in a heavy 
log to build a fire with; six of us could not move it, and one of 
those Indians, without the help of the others, placed it on 
his head carrying it with ease. They eat bread baked in 
coals, one of their loaves being like two of Castile. When 
cold is severe and they have to go from one place to another 
they carry always with them a torch in one hand, leaving the 
other one free for the necessary uses; that being the reason 
why a very large river there is called Rio del Tison. This 
river is more than two leagues wide at its mouth and here 
about half a league." Here the Indians informed Melchor Diaz 
that at three miles journey down the river some ships had 
been seen not long ago. Thereupon Melchor Diaz travelled for 
three days with his men arriving at the place where the river 
empties into the Gulf, and there he found, written upon a 




Most Rev. Placido Chapelle, Archbishop of Santa Fe, Suecessor of Archbishop 
Salpoliite-Detalls of his life and worlvs further on. 



132 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

large tree, these words: "Alarcon arrived at this place; 
there are letters at the foot of this tree.'* Melchor Diaz took 
the letters out and saw by them that Alarcon had waited 
there a long time for instructions from Coronado, and that 
having received none, he had returned to New Spain without 
going further into the interior. Melchor Diaz thence turned 
back travelling up the stream with the purpose of crossing 
the river and of following his journey along the other bank. 
After travelling for five days, and, aided by a large number 
of Indians, he set himself to the work of constructing 
floats in order to cross the river. Whilst the floats were 
being constructed the Indians were forming a conspiracy 
to surprise the Spaniards and drown them while they 
crossed the river, but Melchor Diaz was notified by an Indian 
of what was going on. He captured the Indian who gave him 
the information, made him a prisoner and by rigorous punish- 
ment made him disclose the whole conspirac.y, after which 
be caused him to be killed and, at dead of night, ordered him 
thrown into the river with a heavy stone tied to his neck so 
that the Indians might never learn of the fate of their com- 
panion. They, however, did learn about it the next day. 
Observing that the Spaniards had already suspected their 
treason, they attacked them. In the encounter, the super- 
iority of the Spanish arms, rather than the number of their 
soldiers, triumphed, the Indians being ignominiously routed 
leaving a great many of their number wounded. After the 
combat, the Spaniards crossed the river on the floats, accom- 
panied by the friendly Indians, with their horses swimming 
and tied on to the floats. 

Let us now turn back and give an account of the march of 
the army from Seiiora to Cibola (Bancroft, Prince, and other 
historians affirm that Sonora is the same place Melchor Diaz 
called Seiiora) leaving Melchor Diaz on the other side of the 
Colorado River, as he will after a while engage again our atten- 
tion. 

Before taking up again the narrative of the army the 
reader's attention is called to the fact tliat while Melchor 
Diaz traveled by the other bank, or the north side of the Colo 
rado River, he passed through a great stretch of land of what 
forms today the States of California, Nevada and Utah. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 133 

Between the point of Senora and the Pueblo of Chichilticalli 
they did not suffer any hardship, nor did they observe any- 
thing of importance excepting that many of the soldiers 
contracted sickness on account of having eaten too much 
prickly pear which the Indians gave them in the form of a 
preserve, and that the soldiers who were on the vanguard 
had seen a flock of sheep. Concerning the flock of sheep 
Castaneda says: 

"I saw them myself and followed them; they were of very 
large carcass and very long wool. Their bodies were large 
and thick, and when they run they throw their heads back, 
their horns touching their spinal columns. They are very 
much used to rough lands, a reason wh\' we could not catch 
any." 

After the army had traveled three days in the desert they 
came to a little rivulet which runs through a precipitous 
canon where they met with a horn which Coronado had 
left there for them as sign and guide. The horn, according 
to Castaneda. was about six feet long and was as thick as the 
muscle of a man. At about a day's journey from Cibola a 
violent tempest, accompanied by intense cold, rain and snow, 
caught the army , obliging the soldiersand Indians, whoaccom- 
panied them, to take refuge in the caves of the mountains, 
where they passed the night. The Indians, on account of 
having come from tropical countries, felt the cold more 
severely than the Spaniards, so much so that on the next 
day the soldiers were obliged to turn their horses over to the 
Indians, and travel on foot. Prince tells us that several 
Indians perished from cold on that occasion, but Castaneda 
says nothing about it, by which it is seen that there is a 
mistake somewhere, either in Prince's translation or Hodge's 
to which the Author has now reference. When the army had 
arrived in Cibola, Coronado commenced to make inquiries 
regarding the lands and peoples that might exist beyond Cibo- 
la receiving from the Indians. the information that further 
in the interior a province could be found that was composed of 
seven pueblos very much like those of Cibola, to which they 
gave the name of "Tusayan," situated at 25 mi!es from 
Cibola and inhabited by warlike Indians. To discover these 
seven cities or pueblos, Coronado selected Don Pedro de 



134 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Tobar, who undertook the voyage accompanied by seventeen 
mounted soldiers, Father Juan de Padilla and another 
Franciscan priest, who, in his first years, had been a warrior. 
Tobar and his companion did not delay long in reaching the 
province of Tusayan to which they entered almost unobserved, 
because its inhabitants dared not come out of their pueblos 
since Coronado had possessed himself of Cibola, and because 
they had been notified by other Indians that the Spaniards 
were a ferocious set of men and that they rode on certain 
animals that ate people. Tobar and his companions spent the 
night at the edge of one of the pueblos, and the next day, on 
being discovered, a great multitude of Indians, armed with 
bows and arrows and drawn in line of battle came out, send- 
ing the Spaniards an interpreter to tell them that they would 
be destroyed if they crossed a line which they had made with 
corn meal. Whilst the interpreter was saying that, some of 
the Spaniards attempted to cross the line, wherefore one of 
the Indians struck a horse with a stick; Father Padilla was 
indignant at that and addressing the captain said: "In truth I 
do not know what we have come here for." When the soldiers 
heard the words of Fray Juan Padilla, one of them uttered the 
cry of "Santiago,"' the soldiers throwing themselves instantly 
upon the Indians with so much dexterity that in a short time 
they killed many Indians, compelling the others to flee in 
confusion. With this victory, Tobar was enabled to take 
peaceable possession of the pueblo, receiving their submission 
together with a great quantity of provisions and other pre- 
sents made him, among which were cotton coverings, elabor- 
ated deerskins, corn meal and pinones and domesticated 
birds. With the submission of this pueblo the whole province 
submitted observing the same ceremonial and giving the 
Spaniards the same presents. Here also the Spaniards learned 
that near the place there was a great river along the banks of 
which a great number of pueblos were settled and inhabited 
by men of very large stature (which was none other than the 
great Colorado River already discovered by Melchor Diaz as 
we have said). 

As Don Pedro de Tobar had no authority to go further than 
Tusayan, he returned to Cibola, and informed the general of 
what had been told him. Coronado next sent out Don 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO 135 

Garcia Lopez de Cardenas accompanied by 12 soldiers to 
discover said river. Cdrdenas in his trip passed through 
Tusayan where he was well received and was furnished with 
guides for his trip. After traveUing for 20 days they came 
to the brink of a deep ravine at the foot of which glided the 
famous Colorado River, the canyon being according to Car- 
denas, no less than three or four leagues in width. It took 
them four days to look for places by which to descend to the 
water, but without success; till, at length, Captain Melgosa, 
accompanied by Juan Galeras, found a place by which to go 
down,— the depth of the ravine being so great that those who 
remained in the upper part could not see them when the for- 
mer had come to the middle of the canyon. They returned 
about four o'clock in the afternoon, having not been able to 
descend as far as the water. Prom there, Cardenas and the 
rest returned to Cibola where Don Pedro de Soto Mayor, to 
whom Coronado had entrusted the task of taking notes about 
the voyages, gave Coronado a detailed report of the voyage 
and its fruitless results. 

A little after the arrival of Cdrdenas at Cibola, a party of 
Indians also arrived under the command of a small captain, 
whom the Spaniards nicknamed "Bigotes" because he was 
the tirst Indian they had seen with a moustache. Bigotes 
informed Coronado that he had come from his land, which 
lay very far to the East, (Cardenas gives the distance at 70 
leagues) to offer his submission and that of the inhabitants of 
his province, and as proof of the good faith of his words gave 
Coronado presents of tanned hides and some articles of pot- 
tery, which Coronado accepted with a show of sincere grati- 
tude, giving Bigotes in return a few glass pieces and a few 
pearls and small bells, all of which were a wonder for the 
Indian who had never before seen any like articles. Bigotes 
informed Coronado that in his land they had cows, describing 
such animals by the figure of a cow which was tattooed on his 
own skin. That information encouraged Coronado so much 
as to decide him on the resolution of verifying Bigote's 
narrative by forthwith sending out Hernando de Alvarado, 
accompanied by 20 soldiers and Bigotes, and ordering the 
latter to stay even 80 days in that land, if necessary, that he 
might give an exact account of what he should discover and 



136 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

see. After five days' journe}' Alvarado came to a pueblo 
built upon a very high rock to which it was possible to as- 
cend only by means of steps which the Indians had cut on 
the rock after the fashion of a ladder. The Indians called 
this pueblo "Acuco'" which we know today by the name of 
"Acoma." 

It was 50 miles east from Zuni; its population reached to 
200 souls and its Indians had a very bad reputation and were 
feared by the other villages on account of their valor and 
skill in combats. When they noticed the arrival ot Alvarado 
and his men, they came down to the valley in a bellicose atti- 
tude, drawing a line between themselves and the Spaniards 
and indicating thus to the latter that they must not pass it: 
but, as Alvarado paid no attention to their threats, but gave 
them rather to understand that he was determined to go as 
far as the pueblo even if on that account he should have to 
fight, the Indians surrendered simply at the sight of the 
arms and determination of the Spaniards; and, to give proof 
of their good will and the tirmness of their resolution, they 
wiped the sweat off the horses of the Spaniards with their 
hands and rubbed their own bodies with it making crosses 
with their fingers. That ceremonj^ according to Bigotes, 
was the most solemn among the Indians, and was only 
observed when they made peace treaties. 

The ceremony over, they brought the Spaniards- a large 
number of turkeys, much bread, soft deerskins, pinones 
(pine nuts), corn meal and corn. After a short visit in the 
pueblo of Acuco (Acoma) Alvarado continued his march 
towards the province of Tiguex at a distance of three daj's 
journey from Acuco where he arrived and was received 
without any difficulty by the Indians amid demonstrations 
of joy on account of Bigotes being with them. Alvarado 
stayed here for a brief period undertaking again his journey 
to another pueblo which the Indians called "Cicuye," (Pecos) 
— a pueblo which Bigotes had mentioned to Coronado. Before 
starting for Cicuye, Alvarado sent an emissary to Coronado 
with a very interesting description of what he had discovered 
persuading him to come and pass the winter at Tiguex. 
Coronado received Alvarado's communication with great 
rejoicings, as he already felt very displeased at not having 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 137 

been able to discover some of the riches so much spoken of 
by Cabeza de Vaca and Niza. On the fifth day of his journey 
Alvarado reached the Pueblo of Cicuye, which, (given the 
distance travelled in five days, and the direction he took east- 
ward) was none other than the Pueblo of Pecos; all historians 
concur in this. At Cicuye, Alvarado and his men were 
received with demonstrations of real gladness. All the inha- 
bitants of the pueblo went out to meet him at the sound of 
drums and flutes accompanying him to the pueblo and giving 
him in addition, presents of woollen and cotton coverings and 
valuable turquoises which they obtained by trading with the 
Indians of the province of Tiguex. Alvarado met here an 
Indian slave who had come from the provinces close to 
Florida, and who said that further on in the interior there 
were many and very large pueblos in which gold and silver 
abounded, and that there were many cows. This informa- 
tion kindled in Alvarado's breast the desire of going to see 
those lands and the cows; and he caused the Indian slave, 
whom he named "Turco" because of his looking very much 
like the Turks, to accompany them. The news given out by 
Turco to Alvarado of the fabulous riches of gold and silver, 
was sufficient for Alvarado not to mind the cows. So great 
was the enthusiasm that took hold of his soul because of his 
belief that he had now in reality discovered what both he and 
Coronadoaswellastherestof the Spaniards most heartily de- 
sired, that he instantly decided to return and relate himself 
to Coronado the discovery communicated to him by Turco. 
While Alvarado was returning, Coronado had already sent 
out Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas, accompanied by some 
soldiers, to Tiguex in order to make the necessary prepara- 
tions for the reception of the army which was to pass the 
winter in that place. At Tiguex, Alvarado met Lopez de 
Cardenas, and he remained there awaiting the coming of 
Coronado. Alvarado and Cardenas forced the Indians to 
abandon a whole pueblo, without allowing them to take out 
anything more than the dress they had on, and to. leave all 
the provisions in the pueblo for the alimentation of the army. 
Here Alvarado received information about other pueblos 
which were said to exist to the north of Tiguex, and, as Cas- 
taneda blamed the Indian, Turco, for all the misfortunes that 



138 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

befell the army and Coronado, in referring to the informa- 
tion that Alvarado received in regard to the pueblos to the 
north of Tiguex he says: 

"I believe myself that it would have been of greater benefit 
if we had followed the direction (northward) instead of what 
Turco said, be^iause he (ElTurco) was the cause of all the 
misfortunes that befell the expedition." 

Before starting for Tiguex, Coronado received information 
of the existence of another province, to which the Indians 
gave the name of "Tutahaco," consisting of eight pueblos, 
towards which Coronado turned his steps, taking along with 
him 30 men and some Indians who served as guides, and 
leaving orders that Arellano should follow directly towards 
Tiguex, after the army had rested in Ziini, as he, Coronado, 
had taken a different route to go to the Province of Tutahaco. 
The Province of Tutahaco has never been identified by his- 
torians, some confounding it with that- of Acuco (Acoma), 
and Castaneda hints that Tutahaco and Tusayan are one and 
the same thing; but from what we have read, it is clearly 
seen that Castaneda was mistaken. In the opinion of this 
author, the Province of Tutahaco must have existed in the 
neighborhood of the Rio Grande, in the country lying 
between the pueblos of Isleta and Laguna — the author 
basing his opinion on the direction of the route taken by 
Coronado in order to get to it, and with this opinion agree 
Salpointe, Bancroft and Prince, especially Prince, who, 
referring to that particular point, says: 

"This Province of Tutahaco was, evidently, to be found in 
the valley of the river which we know today by the name of 
San Jos6. Today only one of its pueblos exists: the pueblo 
of Laguna." 

The houses and customs of those pueblos were identical, 
in every respect, with the houses and customs of the Indians 
of the Province of Cibola, which we have already mentioned. 
At Tutahaco, Coronado was given a hospitable reception, 
lodgement and provisions being assigned to him and his 
men, and allowing him to stay there, without any molesta- 
tion, any length of time he desired. After spending a few 
days in that province he continued his march toward Tiguex, 
where he met Alvarado and El Turco, demanding of the 











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Most Rev. Peter Bougarde, Archbishop of Santa Fe. Successor of Arch- 
bishop Chapelle.— Details further on. 



140 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OP NEW MEXICO. 

latter a narrative with more details than the one he had 
already given Alvarado concerning the places from vy^hich he 
had come. El Turco complied, stating to him that there was 
a very large river in his land traversing large prairies and 
its width being about two leagues. It contained fishes as 
large as a horse, and very large canoes each with more than 
twenty paddlers in which the principal chiefs sailed under 
cover of elegant awnings and sails, and that over the most 
conspicuous part of the canoe a large golden eagle was to be 
seen; that the king of those regions took his siestas (naps) 
every afternoon under a big tree lulled by the sound of 
innumerable golden bells; and that the table service used b}^ 
the inhabitants of those lands consisted of golden jars and 
dishes; and many more lies. Perhaps Coronado would not 
have believed El Turco had not the latter shown him some 
ornaments of ordinary metal he had along, and that he was 
able to distinguish the difference between those ornaments 
and the genuine silver which Coronado showed him. By 
this means El Turco was able to ingratiate himself into the 
favor of Coronado. El Turco also told Coronado that the 
Indians of Cicuye had stolen from him some golden brace- 
lets, requesting him at the same time to recover them for 
him. Coronado sent Alvarado to Cicuy^ to recover El 
Turco's bracelets, but the Indians of Cicuy^ informed Alva- 
rado that El Turco did not say the truth, at which Alvarado 
became indignant and caused Chief Bigotes to be imprisoned 
together with the governor (cacique) of the pueblo fettering 
and handcuffing them with irons, the result of which was 
that the Indians of the pueblo rose in insurrection charging 
Alvarado with being insincere and a liar. Alvarado returned 
to Tiguex carrying with him Bigotes and the governor of 
Cicuye, whom Coronado kept in prison at Tiguex for more 
than six months. This inhuman, cruel and unjust action of 
Coronado, and the circumstance of having Lopez de Cdrde- 
nas forcibly drive the Indians out of the pueblo of Tiguex, 
taking from them their provisions and other holdings, as we 
have already said, came to be the reason why the Indians of 
New Mexico began to lose the confidence which up to then 
they had had with respect to the good faith of the Spaniards. 
This was then the origin of the mortal hatred which began to 




Most Rev. J. B. Pitaval, D. D., was born in France, February 10th, 
1858. He made his preparatory course of studies for the priesthood in 
the seminaries of the archdiocese of Lyons, France, and came to the 
United States at the call of Bishop Macheboeuf, of Denver, in June 
1881, remaining- for a few months at St. Mary's Seminary, Baltimore, 
Md., where he was ordained a deacon the following- September, by His 
Eminence, Cardinal Gibbons. 

On December 24, 1881, he was ordained a priest in Denver, Colorado, 
by the Right Reverend Joseph Projectus Macheboeuf, Bishop of Denver, 
and from that date until 3902, he labored as a missionary priest in 
Colorado. 

On July 25, 1902, he was consecrated Bishop Titular of Sora, in 
Santa Fe, New Mexico, by the late Most Rev. Peter Bourgade, Arch- 
bishop of Santa Fe, who made him auxiliary bishop. 

Upon the death of Archbishop Bourgade in May, 1908, Bishop Pita- 
val became administrator of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, and was 
nominated on January 3rd, 1909, Archbishop of Santa Fe, officially 
appointed in the Consistory held on April 29th, 1909, and vested with 
the sacred Pallium on August 18th 1909. 



142 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

take root in the hearts of the Indigenes of New Mexico, and 
came later on to end in the destruction and expulsion of the 
Spaniards, as the reader will shortly see. 

A Portion of the Army Leaves- Git)ola for Tiguex. 

In obedience to the orders of Coronado, Don Tristan de 
Arellano left Cibola for Tiguex, with the army, at the 
beginning of December. The march lasted ten days the army 
suffering a great deal during that time on account of the 
intense cold and snow they had on the road, the snow being 
so much, in one of the last nights of the journe}^, according to 
Castaiieda, that it completely buried the whole equipment of 
the army, as well as the soldiers and their bedding, to such 
a degree (words of Castaneda's) "that had anyone come 
.suddenly he would not have been able to see anything of the 
army, but only large mounds of snow." On passing by Acuco 
(Acoma) the Indians of that pueblo went out carrying a large 
quantity of provisions for the army, on which account many 
of the officials and soldiers made a visit to the pueblo continu- 
ing afterwards their march thence to Tiguex. AtTiguex, they 
were very affectionately received by Coronado who, inalong and 
eloquent harangue informed the army of the great fortune 
that awaited them in the land of the "Great River" mentioned 
by Turco; the information so enthused the soldiers that both 
they as well as Coronado imagined they saw at last the Aljjha 
and Omega of Columbus, or, at least, another empire as rich 
as Moctezuma's, ail looking forward with eagerness to the day 
of the departure. 

We have already seen the injustice done by Cardenas when 
he expelled the Indians of a whole pueblo, and how Coronado 
also had held the Indian Bigotes, who was then a very old 
man, and the governor of Cicuye as prisoners; with the sole 
purpose of satisfying El Turco. Those two circumstances 
had already begotten in the Indians, besides the hatred which 
they already entertained for the Spaniards, a determination 
to take vengeance on them, which finally materialized into a 
firm resolution of breaking asunder all friendly relations 
between themselves and the Spaniards. Another misdeed 
of Coronado's came now to hasten the lamentable outcome 
which put an end to his friendship with the Indians of the 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 143 

province of Ti^uex. As the soldiers were in lack of clothing 
and cold was intense, Coronado caused Juan Alemdn, one of 
his Indian governors, to come to his presence, and told him 
that all the Indians must gather together among their 
pueblo more than 300 articles of clothing for his soldiers, 
ordering them to go and carry his order to the other gover- 
nors, and sending soldiers immediately to all the pueblos 
with such haste that the Indians had no time to hold consul- 
tations among themselves for the purpose of taking the steps 
conducive to the fulfillment of the order. The soldiers 
behaved cruelly in all the pueblos, they despoiled the Indians, 
not only of what they had in their homes, but they even took 
away the shirts they had on their bodies, leaving them 
exposed to the roughness of the weather. And even more^ 
there were cases of criminal assaults upon the wives of the 
Indians. The Indians brought due complaints of all these 
disorders before Coronado, who ordered an investigation 
which proved fruitless, as it was not possible for the Indians 
to identify the assailants, the fatal and unexpected incident 
closing finally in a bitter fight between the Indians and the 
Spaniards, in which, as was to be expected, the Indians were 
defeated, many of them being made prisoners. 

Cardenas who was the captain of the soldiers who took 
part in that fight, having received orders from Coronado not 
to leave a single Indian alive, caused to be burnt alive several 
Indians who had gone to surrender themselves in conformity 
with the peace agreement they had already made with Juan 
de Zaldivar, Lopez, and Melgosa about which Cardenas knew 
nothing until he had consummated one of the blackest crimes 
recorded in history. 

The Indians retired to their pueblos after a desperate 
struggle justly offended and filled with bitter anguish on 
account of the treatment they had received at the hands of 
those they had welcomed with so much hospitality. Despite 
the incessant snows and the intensity of the cold during 60 
days, Coronado made constant efforts to re-establish friendly 
relations with the Indians: but the Indians refused every 
overture, stating to him that they could not depend on men 
false to their word and lacking in gratitude, who, not satisfied 
with holding Bigotes and the Governor of Cicuye as pri- 



144 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

soners without any motive, they, not only violated their 
homes and despoiled the Indians of all they had, but had even 
burnt alive the Indians who had surrendered themselves. As 
Cardenas had been the man who had committed the horrible 
crime, Coronado thought it opportune to send him to the In- 
dians to give satisfaction for what he had done; but the In- 
dians, although Aleman had received Cardenas with seeming 
friendliness, assaulted Cardenas dealing him two heavy blows 
on the head obliging him and his soldiers to flee. When Coro- 
nado learned what had happened to Cardenas, he laid siege 
to the pueblo, held it in blockade for 15 days during which 
there were several encounters, with the loss of 200 Indians,^ 
and the death of Francisco de Obando and many wounded on 
the side of the Spaniards; Obando was taken up by the In- 
dians before dying and carried away to the pueblo. After 
such a heroic struggle on the part of the Indians they sur- 
rendered to the Spaniards when they could no longer live on 
account of the insatiable thirst that was devouring them, but 
before surrendering they had killed many horses. The In- 
dians offered to deliver to the Spaniards the women and 
children of the pueblo in order to be able themselves to con- 
tinue the struggle, and, indeed, they delivered 100 small and 
large persons, whom the Spaniards received, to save them 
their lives. 

The last night of the siege they made an attempt to go out, 
and went out of the pueblo; but they were observed by the 
soldiers of Don Rodrigo Maldonado, were attacked, and 
many of them, together with one Spanish soldier, perished 
in the encounter. Those who remained alive made a preci- 
pitate flight towards the Rio Grande where many perished 
by drowning and a large portion of the others killed by the 
Spaniards. Those who now remained alive were captured 
and compelled to serve as servants of the Spaniards. 
With this victory, the insurrection of the Indians of Tiguex 
ended, the province being completely abandoned by the 
beginning of March 1541. 

During the time the siege of Tiguex lasted, Coronado made 
a trip to Cicuy^, carrying with him the governor of that pueblo 
in order to pacify the inhabitants and make peace with them, 
a thing in which he was successful, promising them that he 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 145 

would return Bigotes to them. In that way the Indians 
remained very well pl€;ased and submitted to Coronado. Let 
us now leave Coronado making his preparations for the march 
he intended to make, as soon as the ice melted on the Rio 
Grande, (a trip which he was able to undertake on the first 
days of May 1541) to give our attention to Melchor Diaz, that 
we may in this way avoid a void in the history of this memo- 
rable but ill-fated expedition. 

Lamentable End of Melchor Diaz. 

We have already said that Melchor Diaz, after discovering 
the Rio Tison (Colorado Grande), crossed said river continuing 
his explorations up stream towards the North, and that, 
before starting from Seiiora, he had left another man in 
command of the soldiers there remaining. That official was 
Don Diego de Alarcon. A little before raising the siege of 
which we spoke in the preceding paragraph, Coronado 
received from Alarcon letters informing him, not only of the 
failure of Melchor Diaz's expedition, but of what was still 
more unfortunate — the death of Melchor Diaz — a great mis- 
fortune for the expedition. Castaneda relates the sad occur- 
rence in these words: 

"When they had crossed the river they turned to the sea. 
coast (the Gulf of California) traveling in a southern direction 
until they arrived at certain banks of very fine sand which 
they were unable to cross because they would have been 
drowned (perished by being buried in the sand which was 
movable and swampy) as in the sea, for when they set their 
feet on the sand they sank, as if there was a lake beneath 
their feet. They at once abandoned that road and took another 
one. During the journey, a bloodhound, carried by one of the 
soldiers, pounced upon the sheep they drove for food pur- 
poses. To prevent the scattering of the sheep, Diaz threw 
his lance at the bloodhound, the lance burying itself in the 
ground, and as Diaz fell from his horse which was running 
at the moment of throwing his lance, his body hit against the 
lance which pierced his intestines. This accident compelled 
Diaz to order the return to Sefiora. Twenty days after, 
during which the Spaniards suffered a great deal both on 
account of their daily encounters and tights with the Indians^ 



146 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

and of the difficulty they had in attending to their captain, 
Diaz, unable to support any longer the fatigues of the journey, 
died on the way." 

The untoward news greatly distressed the Spaniards, and, 
in order better to learn the true situation of what had happen- 
ed, Coronado sent out Alvarado to investigate everything, and 
dispatched, at the same time, emissaries to Mendoza with 
reports of all he had discovered, and of the death of Diaz. At 
SeQora, the Indians of the pueblo, which the Spaniards called 
"Los Vellacos," had attacked the Spaniards before Alvarado's 
arrival, with poisoned arrows killing a soldier, and again at- 
tacked them afterwards; but this time they were pursued to 
their very pueblo by Alcardz whom Alvarado had sent against 
them, and, after their defeat, were made prisoners; but, as 
the Indians gave blankets and robes to the Spaniards, they 
were set at liberty which they made use of in order to renew 
their attacks again with poisoned arrows. In the last encoun- 
ter they killed seventeen soldiers, besides compelling the 
Spaniards to move from Senora to another place they 
founded and called "Suya," distant forty leagues from Senora 
in the direction of Cibola. Such was the end of Melchor 
Diaz's expedition, and of the existence of the Villa of Senora. 
Let us again turn our attention to Coronado. 

Submission of the Province of the Queres and Voyage of Coronado to 
La Gran Quivira. 

Coronado unwilling to begin his voyage to his so much 
lauded "Quivira" without leaving the other provinces in per- 
fect peace, was able, without any obstacle worthy of men- 
tion, to obtain tne submission of the pueblo of Zia (Chia) and 
the other four pueblos of the province called "Queres" or 
"Quirix", Zia being the first one to submit. Coronado made 
a signal distinction of that pueblo by presenting to it four 
pieces of (cannon) of artillery (the four were broken — Coro- 
nado's reason for giving them). The Indians of the twelve 
pueblos of the province of Tiguex were the only ones who 
would not surrender, and would not re-inhabit their pueblos. 
Having pacified the provinces alluded to, Coronado sent let- 
ters to Don Pedro de Tobar, with some Indians from Cibola 
who had come to visit Coronado, telling him what he and the 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 147 

others should do in order to follow the army, and how they 
should find letters at the foot of certain crosses at each day's 
journey on the road. This done, the army set out from 
Tiguex, at the beginning of May for Cicuye, a place where 
they were received amid rejoicings and welcomes because 
Coronado had given back to them their captain Bigotes, re- 
turning him the favor by presenting to Coronado a young 
Indian called Xabe who belonged to those of Quivira and who 
might help them as guide. Before going any further, the 
author desires to relate an incident analogous to the one 
which happened in Culiacdn (ante) in the diabolical vision 
forged by Trujillo. Here it is: While the siege of the pue- 
blos of Tiguex was in progress, a soldier who suspected 
Turco of being a wizard had the singular thought of locking 
up Turco in a room in order to undeceive himself as to 
whether or not Turco was a wizard. According to that sol- 
dier, whose name was Cervantes, Turco conversed with the 
devil a whole night long, the devil being enclosed in a clay 
pitcher. Cervantes says that Turco himself admitted it and 
that he proved what he had admitted with this question he 
made to Cervantes: 

"How many Christians have the Indians killed?" To which 
Cervantes answered: "They have not killed a single one." 
Turco answered indignantly: "You lie, five Christians have 
died, among them a captain," (Obando) wherefore Cervantes 
believed that Turco was in reality in league with the devil. 
Let us now follow Coronado. 

Prom Pecos (Cicuye) the famous march commenced in a 
southwest direction following the course of the Pecos River, 
with the young Quivira Indian, Xabe, as guide, till they 
reached, after four days' journey, the place where theycrossed 
the Pecos River (which Cabeza de Vaca called Las Vacas) in 
the neighborhood of Puerto de Luna which they could not 
cross at tirst on account of the large volume of water that 
obliged them to construct a bridge, a work they performed 
in ft)ur days. From that place, Coronado sent out an escort 
of soldiers and Turco as vanguard of the army, the army 
following quite near. After ten days" travel they arrived at an 
encampment of Indians called "Quereches"' who are known 
now by the name of "Apaches Vaqueros.*' These received 



148 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Coronado in a friendly manner, because Turco had told them 
beforehand that they should do so, and informed him corro- 
baratively of what Turco and Xabe had before told him con- 
cerning the large towns that they would find along the large 
river. Prom the Pecos River toward the interior of the 
plains (The Staked Plain) the Spaniards met with innumer- 
able herds of the cows of Cabeza de Vaca — the bison or buf- 
falo. 

The army travelled more and more for several days getting 
further and further into the vast terrestrial expanse without 
finding anything else except bisons, and without suffering 
anything except a serious incident. Cardenas (Garcia) had 
an arm broken and one soldier lost his way. To find the lost 
soldier, Coronado sent out Don Diego de L6pez with 10 soldiers 
who were also lost, but were afterwards found by the In- 
dians called "Taijas;" the poor soldier however remained 
lost. L6pez and his companions gave Coronado an account 
of an incident they experienced which borders not only on 
the ridiculous, but even on what is incredible. Lopez speaks: 
"Such a great number of cows (bisons) was found that 
many were killed by the horses in the chase after them 
towards a brook that glided between two very high banks; 
and the number of cows was so great that they began to fall 
one upon another till they perfectly filled the brook to the 
top of the banks, many of them passing over the fallen ones 
in the brook; and the men also threw themselves over that 
bridge of cows without knowing what had happened, losing 
by the fall three horses with their saddles and trappings." 

It was learned in this place by another Indian of Quivira 
whom they called "Ysopete" who had joined the army, that 
the things which Turco had told the Spaniards were not true, 
and he did not hesitate to tell Coronado that Turco was a liar. 
Coronado, however, did not want to believe Ysopete, always 
following the advice of the mendacious Turco. After a few 
more journeys Coronado arrived at a very large encampment 
in which the Spaniards were well received, the Indians giving 
them presents of well tanned hides, and requesting them to 
bless them, as it had been done many years before by three 
Spaniards and a negro (Cabeza de Vaca and his companions) 
who passed through there. Among those Indians, the 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 149 

Spaniards saw a female Indian as white as Spanish women, 
whom the Spaniards took as an Albina. 

Thus did the army march for 37 days covering fifteen or 
twenty miles per day without finding anything more than 
encampments of Indians, abundance of buffalo and deer, and, 
on the brow of the hills, sometimes flocks of wild or moun- 
tain sheep, experiencing every day new misfortunes and 
hearing daily the charges against Turco by Ysopete and 
Xabe. The aridity of the lands that they were discovering 
gave them little hope of seeing their ideals realized, their 
discomfort increasing by the information they received from 
the Indians of the last encampment to the effect, that La 
Qnivira was very far to the north, and that Turco had been 
all along deceiving them. The aspect of things from that day 
commenced to change, the Spaniards coming short of killing 
Turco, for they were now satisfied that he was a miserable 
impostor and that Xabe and Ysopete had told them the truth. 
Ooronado seeing that El Turco had made fun of him and his 
army, and that to continue the march further into the interior 
with the army, in view of the fact that his provisions were 
now being exhausted, would be to expose it to unaccountable 
sufferings, caused Turco to be fettered, and called a council 
of his officers with the purpose of sounding them as to 
whether or not the army should follow on or return to Tiguex. 
The majority of the officers were of opinion that the army 
should return to Tiguex with Don Tristan de Arellano at the 
head, and that General Coronado should proceed to the inte- 
rior of the land with thirty mounted and six infantry soldiers. 
So it was done, in spite of the energetic protest made by the 
soldiers to the effect that they preferred to accompany Coro- 
nado even if they lost their lives. Coronado took Turco, the 
Indian with him, not as one of his staff but as a prisoner; his 
wish being to give, in that way, one opportunity more to that 
liar of proving that what he had told Coronado and the army 
was certain. Ysopete also accompanied Coronado as a guide. 

The Army Retrocedes and Coronado Finds the so Much Talked of 
Quivira. 

It is believed that the place where Coronado and the army 
separated was the upper part of Texas, Rio Colorado. This 



150 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

is, however, a mere conjecture of the persons so affirming. 
After due preparations the two corps separated, — Coronado 
accompanied by 80 of the best soldiers well equipped and 
mounted on the best horses, with Ysopete, and other Indians 
given him by the Teyas acting as guides. Coronado en- 
trusted to Don Diego de Lopez the charge of the command. 
The Indians whom the Teyas had sent as guides for Coronado 
did not long stand the fatigues and long marches; they es- 
caped out a few days after the departure. That circum- 
stance compelled Coronado to send Diego de Lopez to the 
nation of the Teyas after other guides. Arellano was still in 
the land of the Teyas hunting buffaloes and preparing and 
fixing the meat for the subsistence of the army in its long 
march to Tiguex. As Coronado knew that Arellano had not 
yet set out on his march of retreat, he sent him orders with 
Lopez to hasten the return of the army to Tiguex where they 
were to wait for him. The new order did not please the 
army because all the soldiers were still in hopes that Coro- 
nado would rescind his first order, and allow them to accom- 
pany him. The Teyas gave Lopez other guides enabling him 
to return to where Coronado was. When this happened, 
Coronado had already travelled for 15 days. When Lopez 
had joined Coronado again, they contiuned the march with 
the firm resolve not to abandon those lands till they had dis- 
covered the Quivira and its fabulous riches. 

After forty days' journey counted from the day when he 
separated from the army, and during which nothing worthy 
of mention had been seen, Coronado arrived at the far- 
famed Quivira, which was nothing more, according to Cas- 
taneda, than one of the many Indian encampments where 
they lived in slender huts like the ones they had seen since 
they crossed the Rio de Las Vacas (Rio de Pecos). The 
reader may well understand the class of ideas that on that 
moment crowded upon the minds of Coronado and his men; 
one may well imagine the anguish of Coronado's soul on 
realizing so bitter a disappointment; and how he foresaw in 
this failure, not only the loss of his fortune, but even that, 
which in his estimation was as precious as life itself — his 
prestige as a soldier and a conqueror. At that moment the 
laurels with which he had hoped to wreathe his brow, in 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OP NEW MEXICO. 151 

imitation of Ccrtes, were turned into piercing thorns. Turn- 
ing to the Indian chiefs, who had received him with demon- 
strations of genuine joy, he told them that Turco had 
deceived him; whereupon the said chiefs asked Turco many- 
questions, accusing him as a Har, and requiring of him to 
state the reasons he had had for deceiving Coronado, and 
for obliging him thereby to travel through those deserts. 
Turco, in answer, said that his own land lay in those sec- 
tions; and, besides that, he had been advised by the Indians 
of Cicuye to deceive the Spaniards, carrying them through 
plains that they might perish from hunger both themselves 
and their horses, or, at least, should they return to Cicuye, 
they would return so extenuated that they (the Indians) 
would not have trouble in killing them all. All the satisfac- 
tion Coronado could get from that ruinous voyage was that 
of punishing Turco by taking his life away by the penalty of 
the garrote (strangulation). 

Regarding the precise place in which Coronado ended his 
voyage, and the route he followed in order to arrive at it, 
nothing is known with certainty. All American writers 
differ, but they agree unanimously, that it was the river 
•known by the name of "San Pedro y San Pablo," or the 
Arkansas, in the State of Kansas, to the east of the place 
where the present city of Dodge City is founded, near the 
"Great Bend" of Kansas. In the same way all authors are 
agreed in the conclusion that the Indians Coronado found in 
La Quivira were the ones known today as the "Wichita" 
Indians, who are also the ones that always inhabited that 
part of the continent. Let us leave Coronado here, and give 
now our attention to the army. 

The Army In Its March of Retreat. 

A soon as Arrellano became convinced that his endeavors 
and those of his soldiers to accompany Coronado had been 
useless he set himself energetically to the work of prepara- 
tion for his long journey. 

The soldiers and friendly Indians had killed about 500 
buffaloes and dressed the meat by sun-drying it, with which, 
believing themselves well provided, they commenced their 
return following a more direct route than the one shown them 



152 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

by their Teyas guides and covering the distance in 25 days, 
while in the first journey they had delayed thirty seven days. 
Regarding the method observed by the Indian guides (maps, 
as the Spaniards termed them,) in order not to get lost in 
those inmense plains, Castaneda says: 

"In the morning they notice the rising of the sun observing 
next and marking the direction or way towards which they 
were traveling. Then they shot an arrow towards thedirect- 
ion they were going, following that direction till they ap- 
proached the place where the arrow had fallen and shooting 
another one in the same direction before reaching the first 
one. They repeated the performance, the whole day long, 
during the twenty five days that the march lasted, while in 
the first voyage it took us thirty seven days." * 

In his long march, Arrellano saw nothing particular, nor 
did he meet anj^thingof any importance except some lakes of 
very good and rich salt and of very crystalline waters and 
many little animals which looked like the squirrels of Spain 
and live all over the plains congregated in numerous holes." 
(Tusas, prairie dogs, as they are called in New Mexico.) The 
army arrived at the Pecos River about 80 miles further 
down than the place where they had constructed the bridge, 
and, as they could not cross the river they had to travel up the 
stream till they arrived at the bridge and there crossed the 
river following the march up to Cicuye with the belief that 
the Indians of that pueblo would receive them cordially and 
with rejoicings, -but they were)mistaken, for those Indians not 
only refused to welcome them into the pueblo, but received 
them with bellicose demonstrations, their conspiracy with 
Turco being thus proven. Arellano didnot insist on submitting 
them to obedience, he and his soldiers not being in good trim 
to give battle. He tried to make peace with the Indians, but 
■they proudly rejected all his proposals, wherefore he deter- 
mined upon a sagacious and prudent course of action and 
followed his march for Tiguex reaching that place in July 
1541. He found that the Indians had returned to their pueblos, 
but with the arrival of the army, they again abandoned them 
through the fear and terror inspired in them by the presence 

* Castaiieda Relation. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 153 

of the Spaniards, since the time Cardenas had burnt alive so 
many of them. 

Other Provinces are Discovered. — Goronado Returns. 

Immediately upon his arrival at Tiguex, Arellano sent 
Capt. Francisco Barrionuevo, commanding a company of sol- 
diers, in search of provisions in the neighboring provinces. 
Barrionuevo discovered the province of Jemez which was 
composed of seven pueblos (actually there is only one.) To 
the Northeast of Tiguex and Yuqueryunque near the junc- 
tion of the Chama River with the Rio Grande, he struck two 
pueblos (doubtless, one was the pueblo of San Juan, the 
other does not exist). At Jemez, he gathered many provi- 
sions without any hindrance, for the Indians received them 
with unexpected good grace. The Indians of Yuqueryunque 
flew to the mountains in a place where they had four pueblos 
in sites so rugged that the horses were not able to get to 
them. In the pueblos that had been abandoned, pieces of 
metal were found indicating, says Castaneda, that "some- 
where there mines of gold and silver existed"". * 

Thence Barrionuevo continued his march towards the 
Northwest, till he reached another pueblo called Braba 
(which is no other than the actual pueblo of Taos) to which, 
on account of being the best constructed one they had till 
then seen, and because a small stream crossed it, as it does 
now, through its center, they named it "Valladolid.'" An- 
other captain whom Arellano had sent to explore the lands to 
the south of Tiguex, upon the banks of the Rio Grande tra- 
velled 30 leagues and discovered the province of "Piro" In- 
dians composed of four pueblos (not actually existing.) Con- 
tinuing his voyage down the river he reached a place on the 
Rio Grande where the water disappears from the surface of 
the land and thence returned to Tiguex because he had no 
authority to go over 80 leagues, and because the time fixed 
for the return of Coronado was quite near at hand. 

When the Captain had arrived (Castaneda gives not his 
name) from the province of Los Piros, and, as the time of 
Coronado's arrival was drawing near, Arellano, at the head of 

* According to the latest historians these tour pueblos are those 
pueblos situated in the Pajarito Caflon. — The Author. 



154 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

forty men, started out to meet Coronado. At Cicuye he found 
the Indians in readiness to give him battle. He engaged 
them killing many and among the dead were many caciques. 
Arellano fearing that the Indians of Cicuy6 might make war 
on Coronado remained there for several days waiting for the 
arrival of Coronado who had already sent him word by an 
Indian of his arrival at Cicuye. 

Coronado did not delay long his arrival, his presence being 
a motive of much pleasure, not only for the Spaniards, but 
for the Indians of Cicuy^ as well, who had now tamed down 
by means of the punishment administered to them by Ar- 
ellano. No one, however, rejoiced more than the Indian, Xabe, 
who had returned from the land of the Teyas with Arellano 
and was at Cicuy6 on that day. Xabe, overflowing with satis- 
faction on hearing that Turco had been put to death, burst 
into a mighty laughter, as he asked the Spaniards, who was 
the liar he or Turco? After the ordinary salutations had 
passed off Coronado continued his march for Tiguex with 
hopes of returning to Quivira, for the idea that in that place 
much gold and silver existed never deserted his mind for a 
moment. Immediately upon his arrival at Tiguex, he gave 
his orders and made the necessary arrangements in order to 
spend his second winter at Tiguex. As some historians 
(among them, Prince) give it as their opinion that Coronado 
actually visited the Missouri River, the author of this work 
deems it opportune to give his reason for believing the con- 
trary; that is, that Coronado did not visit, nor even saw the 
Missouri River. The great river which Fernando De Soto 
discovered — the Mississippi — De Soto called "The River of 
the Holy Ghost." That river, which, at the place where De 
Soto discovered it, is the Missouri and the Mississippi 
together, is the one to which Castaiieda refers in his "Rela- 
cion;'" and, that neither Coronado nor his men ever saw^ it, he 
himself tells us in these words: 

"From trustworthy information that I could obtain, it (the 
river) passes through the province of Arache. It was not 
visited, because, as they say, it comes from very distant lands 
out of the mountains of the South Sea." 

Since we have now Coronado quartered in Tiguex, let us 
hear the words of the historian Mota Padilla concerning the 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 155 

failure of Coronado's expeditions tola Quivira, aud the reasons 
he gives us in support of his opinion. Padilla speaks: 

"Perhaps it was a punishment from God that those of this 
expedition should find no riches, for instead of thinking 
first on the conversion of those heretics they set all their 
endeavors in looking after riches, struggling against fate, 
and making, what should have been their first aim, a second- 
ary affair." 

A few days after Coronado's arrival at Tiguex, Pedro de 
Tobar arrived from San Jeronimo bringing in new soldiers 
with the purpose of going to look for Coronado at la Quivira. 
As he did not expect to meet with Coronado at Tiguex, he 
was greatly distressed, together with his soldiers, because 
they all were anxious to visit the far-famed Quivira. Coro- 
nado consoled them with the hope that, after the winter was 
passed, the army would again go to Quivira. Tobar brought 
letters from Mendoza for Coronado, and from individual per- 
sons for the soldiers; among these, one came for Garcia 
Lopez de Cardenas in which the announcement was made to 
him of the demise in Spain of a brother of his who had left 
him a rich heritage. 

Clothing had become so scarce among the Spaniards who 
had gone to Quivira that Coronado was obliged to look for 
clothes among the friendly Indians. He collected some 
articles, which the officers appropriated to themselves and 
their favorites unmindful altogether of the soldiers. Great 
discontent was the result of such a proceeding which gave 
birth to very serious murmurings and great dissatisfaction, 
culminating in the disclosure of the truth about the false 
riches of Quivira. The soldiers told Tobar, and to those who 
had come with him from San Jeronimo, that the whole story 
about la Quivira had been a deceit played upon the Spaniards 
and planned by the Indians of Cicuye and Turco in order to 
cause the death of the army in the plains. This declaration 
accelerated the sinister unravelling of the ill-fated expedition, 
as will be seen. 

Coronado himself secretly suffered from the bitterness of 
the deceit practiced on him by the Indian, Turco; he certainly 
spoke as though he really desired to undertake a second 
voyage to Quivira, but his heart yearned for a propitious 



156 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

opportunity to present itself to him of returning to New- 
Spain. The duty of declaring the truth to his sovereign 
<30uld not be evaded, but he delayed the fulfillment of that 
duty until October 20th, 1541, the day on which he wrote his 
report, or account, to the Emperor of the ill-fated voyage to 
Quivira in the following words:* (Taken from volume 3 of 
'•Coleccion de Documentos Niedito," in the hands of the 
author of this work). 

""Letter of Francisco Vasquez Goronado to the Emperor Giving Him an 
Account of the Expedition to the Province of Quivira and of the 
Inexactness of What was Related to Fr. Marcos de Niza Goncern- 
ing That Gountry." S. G. G. M. 

'On the 20th of April of this year, I wrote to your majesty, 
from this province of Tiguex, in answer to a letter from Y. 
M., done at Madrid, on the llthof June of last year, and I gave 
you particular account and information about this journey 
which the viceroy of New Spain commanded me to make in 
the name of Y. M. to this land which was discovered by Fray 
Marcos de Niza, provincial of the order of Seiior San Fran- 
cisco, and of what the whole of it is, and of the class of peo- 
ple, as Y. M. must have ordered it to be seen by my letters, 
and that while attending to the conquest and pacification of 
the natives of this province, certain native Indians of other 
provinces beyond these ones had given me account, to the 
effect that in their land, there were much larger pueblos, and 
better houses than those of the natives of this land, and there 
were lords who commanded them, and who were served in 
golden vases, and other things of much grandeur. And 

*NoTE— Coronado's letter is given verbatim for two reasons, i. e. 
(1)' Because when the first Spanish edition of this work was pub- 
lished, the authority containing said letter had not been received by 
me from Spain, and (2) to conclusively contradict, by Coronado's 
own words, the erroneous and false statements, so often published that 
Coronado visited the site where now stands the city of Santa Fe. The 
reader will observe in reading this letter from Coronado to the 
pjmperor that he, Coronado, complains of the inclement cold and the 
absolute scarcity of wood (fuel). Wood was then as it is today, 
abundant close to Santa Fe, the city being at the foot of the Sierras 
and practically enclosed by piiion, cedar and pine forests.— The 
Author. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 157 

although, as I wrote to Y. M., because it was the story of 
Indians, and at that by means of signs, I would not believe 
them until I saw it with my own eyes, the story seeming to 
me quite great and important to the service of Y. M., that it 
should be seen, 1 determined to go, with the men I have here, 
and see it, and I started from this province on the 23d of the 
month of April last by the ways the Indians offered to lead 
me. And after nine days of travel I came to such large 
plains, that, through where I traversed them, I found no end 
to them, although I traveled through them for more than 300 
leagues; and in them I found so great a quantity of the cows 
about which I wrote to Y. M. that existed in these lands that 
to count them is impossible, for not a single day, while I 
traveled through the plains until my return, did I loose sight 
of them. And after traveling for 17 days I encountered an 
encampment of Indians who follow these cows, who are 
called Querechos, and do not plant (or sow the land) and they 
eat the raw meat and drink the blood of the cows they kill. 
They tan the hides of the cows, with which all the people of 
this land dress; they have pavilions (huts) made of the tanned 
and greased hides of the cows, all well done. They dwell in 
them, and go with the cows moving with them. They have 
dogs of burden, and on them they transport their tents and 
poles and other little articles. They are the best disposed 
people which I have to this day seen in Indies. These people 
could not give me any information of the land to which the 
guides were carrying me; and throngh where they wished to 
guide me I traveled for live days until I arrived to certain plains 
so destitute of any sign as if we were engulfed in the sea: here 
they (the guides) were at helter-skelter for in all of them (the 
plains) there is not a stone, nor a hill, nor a shrub, nor any- 
thing alike; there are many and very fine pasture grounds 
with good grass. And lost as we were in these plains, some 
mounted men who went out hunting cows met some Indians 
who were also a-hunting who are enemies of the ones I met 
in the encampment I had left, and another nation of people 
called the Teyas, with their bodies and faces tattooed, tall in 
size, and very well disposed people. These also, like the 
Querechos, eat the meat raw; live and go after the same 
manner, with the cows. Prom these I had an account of the 



158 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

land to which the guides were carrying me, that it was not 
as they had told me, for these represented to me the houses 
as of straw and hides and not of stone and of several stories 
as the guides I carried had represented them, and in them a 
little of corn food. And with this news I felt quite anxious, 
on seeing myself in those plains without end, where I was in 
sore need of water, and where many a time I had to drink of 
so bad a quality that it had a greater part of dirt than of 
water. There the guides confessed to me that only about the 
grandeur of the houses they had not told me the truth, for 
they were of straw, that in the multitude of the people and 
other things of policy, they did say it (the truth) and the 
Teyas were against this. And because of this division between 
the Indians, and also because it was already some days that 
many of the men who were with me ate only meat, the corn 
which I took from this province having given out; and because 
from the land where I met these Teyas to the land whither 
the guides were taking me there would be, it was reckoned, 
more than forty days of traveling; although the fatigue and 
peril was represented to me which might be on the journey 
through the want of water and corn, it seemed best to me, 
through no motive but that of serving Y. M., to go on ahead, 
with only thirty mounted men, till I got to see the land, so I 
might be able to give your majesty a true account of what I 
might therein see. And 1 sent all the rest of the men I had 
back to this province with D. Tristan de Arellano as chief 
commander; for, according to the lack of waters, in addition 
to the circumstance that they had to kill bulls and cows for 
the purpose of feeding themselves there being no other food 
it would have been impossible to prevent many men from 
having perished, if all had gone ahead with me. And with 
only the thirty mounted men which I took in my company I 
traveled for 42 days after I left the army all of us feeding 
only on the meat of the bulls and cows we killed at the cost 
of some horses which were killed, for those animals are, as I 
-have written to you, very daring fierce; going for several days 
without water and cooking our meals by means of dry cow- 
dung, for there is not any kind of wood in all these prairies 
outside of the creeks and rivers which are quite few." 

"Our Lord was pleased that, after having at last travelled 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 159 

through those deserts for 67 days, I arrived at the province 
called Quivira to v^hich the guides were taking me and v^hich 
they had described as with stone houses and of many stories; 
and not only are they not stone houses, but they are straw 
houses, and their people are as barbarous as all others, I have 
seen and come across till now; for they have no coverings, nor 
cotton to make them out of, but only hides which they tan 
from the cows they kill for they are settled among them on a 
quite large river. They eat the meat, raw, like the Querechos 
and Teyas. They are mutual enemies, but they are of the 
same manner of people; and those of Quivira are ahead of the 
others in the houses they have and in planting corn. In this 
province, of which the guides that took me thereto are native- 
born Indians, I was received peacefully, and though, when 
I started they told me that I would not be able to see it all 
even in two months, there are not in it, neither is there in ail 
the rest that I saw and learned about, more than 25 pueblos 
with straw houses, all of which rendered obedience to Your 
Majesty and placed themselves under your Royal Lordship. 
Their people are tall grown individuals and I had some Indians 
measured who had ten palms of stature; the women are of 
good disposition, their faces are more after a moorish than an 
indian appearance. The natives gave me there a piece of cop- 
per which an Indian chief had hanging from the neck. I sent it 
to the viceroy of New Spain, because I have not seen in these 
parts any other metal but that, as well as some small copper 
bells which I sent him and a small quantity of metal which 
looked like gold, and which I have not known whence it came 
but I believe that the Indians who gave it to me got it 
from the ones I have here with me at my service, for I don't 
know anywhere else it might have had its origin, neither do 
I know whence it may be. The diversity of languages in this 
land, and the lack of persons understanding them has been a 
drawback to me. In every pueblo they speak their own 
(language). I have, therefore, been obliged to send out captains 
and men to many places in order to learn whether in this land 
there is any place where your Majesty might be served; and, 
although this object has been sought with all diligence possible, 
no settlement has been found, neither nave I had notice of 
any, except these provinces which are quite a small thing. 



160 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

The province of Quivira lies nine-hundred and fifty leagues- 
distant from Mexico; through where I came, it isat 40degrees. 
The land is, of itself, the most suited of all I have seen to yield 
all the things in Spain, because, in addition to being in itself ^ 
thick and black and of having very good v\;^aters in creeks, 
springs, and rivers, I found everything raised in Spain, such 
as nutmegs, and sweet grapes, and very good raspberries. 
In conformity with what your Majesty has commanded, I 
have given the best treatment possible both to the natives of 
that province and the rest I have met wherever I have passed^ 
and in nothing have they been aggrieved by me or by those in 
my company. I stayed in this province of Quivira for 25 
days both with the object of seeing and walking through the 
land as well as to gain information as to whether further on 
there might be anything that might serve Your Majesty, for 
the guides, I had, had given me notice of the existence of 
other provinces further on. And (the information) I could 
obtain, is that there was neither gold nor any other metal in 
that land; and the rest about which they gave me an account 
are but small pueblos; and in many of them they do not plant 
and have no houses except huts made of hides and reeds, and 
go roving about with the cows. Thus it was that the infor- 
mation they gave me was false, for the purpose of having me 
go there with all my men, believing that, by reason of so 
many deserts and uninhabited places in the road, they might 
lead us into a part where both our horses and ourselves would 
die of hunger. And so the guides confessed it, and that, 
with the advice and com mand of the natives of these provinces, 
they had done it. And with this, after having seen the land 
of Quivira, and having had the information of what was 
further on, which I state above, I returned to this province 
to put the men on their guard whom I had sent back, and 
also to give information to You r Majesty about what that land 
is, for I wrote to Your Majesty that I would do so on seeing 
it. I have done all that has been possible for me to do in 
order to serve Your Majesty and to discover land wherever 
God, Our Lord, might be served, and the patrimony of Your 
Majesty expanded, as your loyal servant and vassal; for, 
since I have arrived at the province of Cibola, where the 
Viceroy of New Spain sent me in the name of Your Majesty, 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO, 161 

having seen there was nothing of what Fr. Marcos said, I 
have tried to discover this land, 200 leagues and more in 
circuit around Cibola, and the best I have found is this river 
of Tiguex where I am and its towns which are not in position 
to be peopled, because, in addition to their being at a distance 
of 400 leagues from the sea of the North and from the South 
Sea more than 200, where no possible manner of trading can 
exist, the land is so cold, as I have written to Your Majesty,, 
that it seems impossible for winter to be spent therein 
there being neither wood nor clothing wherewith men might 
be sheltered but only hides with which the natives dress and 
, some cotton coverings in small quantity. I send the Viceroy 
of New Spain information of all 1 have seen in the lands I 
have gone through; and, as Don GonzaloPferez de Cdrdenas is 
going to kiss the hands of Your Majesty, who m this journey 
has worked much and served Your Majesty very well, and 
will give Your Majesty information concerning everything 
here, as a man who has seen all, to him do I refer myself. — 
And may Our Lord preserve the S. C. C. person of Your 
Majesty with the increase of larger realms and dominions as 
we your loyal servants and vassals do wish. — From this 
province of Tiguex, on the 20 of October of the year 1541. — 
S. C. C. M, Your Majesty's humble servant and vassal who 
kisses your royal feet and hands." 

(Rubric) "Francisco Vasquez de Coronado." 

Goronado is Hurt. — Cardenas Returns. 

The Spaniards passed the winter in extreme poverty, their 
consternation increasing with the confusion that overtook the 
army through a lamentable accident suffered by Coronado. 
While taking a ride in company of Rodrigo Maldonado, and 
mounted on a very fiery horse running at full speed, the cinch 
of his saddle burst, and Coronado had such a terrific fall, the 
horse trampling his body, that he was so badly hurt as to be 
on the point of death, and had to be confined to his bed for 
quite a length of time. The accident is attributed by Casta- 
fieda to Providence that the second voyage to Quivira might 
not be carried into effect. Let us hear him: 

"The trip to Quivira had now been announced and the 
necessary preparations were being made. But as nothing 



162 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

in this world is at the disposal of man, and God Almighty 
operates in everything, it was His Will that everything 
should fail, and that the fatal fall should happen to the gen- 
eral himself." 

While the general was still ill, Cardenas arrived in Tiguex 
stating that he had to turn back from Suya because he had 
found the village in ruins, that it had been set on tire, and 
that all the Spaniards, many Indians, and all the horses 
were dead. The evil news was not communicated to Coro- 
nado at once; they had to wait till he became better. When 
he recuperated, the disaster was announced to him, the effect 
of which affecting him so badly that he relapsed into bed 
refusing to be interviewed. With the general's relapse the 
confusion among the soldiery increased and the idea occurred 
to Coronado of secretly considering his return to Mexico on 
account of deeming himself seriously ill. He therefore com- 
menced at once to plan the manner most conducive to carr}^ 
his determination into effect without appearing himself as the 
originator of the plan. After the most thorough discussions 
between himself and some of his officers, in whom he had 
absolute confidence, it was agreed to prepare a petition 
which, after being signed by all the captains and soldiers, 
would be presented to Coronado, who was to feign surprise 
and displeasure on receiving it. So it was done. As soon as the 
petition was signed, it was presented to him and he played his 
part so well that the unwary, who had fallen in the trap laid for 
them, were the most emphatic in urging on him the good 
basis on which rested the reasons laid before him for their 
return to Mexico, and how he would be exonerated from all 
blame, when it would be shown that the army had demanded 
the course taken. It was not long, however, before the 
truth came to light. When those who signed blindly real- 
ized what had occurred they protested declaring that they 
desired to remain and to continue in the discovery and con- 
quest of La Quivira, but Coronado unheeded their words. It 
was proposed to him that he march himself with the army 
to Mexico, but to leave 60 soldiers in Tiguex to wait for the 
orders of the King. All was of no avail. The}' requested 
him to return the petition to them, but Coronado refused to 
accede. Tired at so much waiting, they determined upon 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 163 

stealing the petition from him; they took his trunk out of 
his room, but could not find the paper desired, whence they 
hit upon the thought that Coronado had it under his bed, and 
as they could not steal it therefrom for fear of the sentries 
stationed there by Coronado from among the men who had 
made the plan with himself, they resigned themselves to the 
will of Coronado. Immediately after, and, in spite of being 
as yet very sick, Coronado gave the order for making the 
preparations in order to set out on the return march to 
Mexico. 

Fr. Juan Padilla, Fr. Juan de La Cruz, (Escalona), and Andres del 
Gampo (Portuguese) Remained Among the Indians. Coronado 
Returns to Mexico. 

It was the month of April, 1542, when Coronado gave the 
order for the preparations to commence. Fathers Juan de 
Padilla and Fr. Luis de Escalone (called also Juan de la Cruz) 
in company with Andres del Campo, hailing from Portugal, 
and some friendly Indians of the ones who had come from 
Mexico with Coronado, made up their minds to continue 
preaching the gospel, among the Indians, Fr. Luis selecting 
the province of Cicuye, and Fr. Juan de Padilla the province 
of Quivira. Coronado did not oppose, but rather encouraged 
those ministers of the Lord to persevere in their work, send- 
ing an escort of soldiers to accompany them to Cicuye, the 
place in which Fr. Luis remained, Fr. Juan de Padilla con- 
tinuing in his march to la Quivira, accompanied b}' the Por- 
tuguese and some of the friendly Indians who served them 
as guides. Both priests, Padilla at Quivira, and Fr. Luis at 
Cicuye, were martyred. We shall recur to these holy mis- 
sionaries, who were the real heroes of the expedition, before 
closing this chapter. 

Goronado's Return. 

All things being now in readiness for the return voyage, 
Coronado reviewed the army rejoicing at the success with 
which his wishes were crowned, and at having written to 
Emperor Charles V, on October 20th, 1541, the narrative 
which the reader has already read. Towards the end of April, 
1542, Coronado left Tiguex toward Mexico, stopping for a few 



16-t ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

days at Zuni because many horses were dyin^ on the road, 
following his trip without experiencing any reverse, to Culia- 
can, leaving all the province of New Mexico pacified, and also 
leaving at Zuni some of the Indians who had come with him 
from Mexico. A little before reaching Chichilticalli, Coro- 
nado met Captain Juan Gallego, who was now returning with 
more soldiers and provisions. Continuing his march he 
arrived at Culiacan at the beginning of June, remaining in 
that city until the 24th of the same month, when he left again 
for Mexico to give Mendoza an account of his fruitless expe- 
dition. Mendoza received him with undisguised indifference, 
but did not censure him, contenting himself with relieving 
him from the post of governor of New Galicia. The removal 
from office, the loss of his military prestige, the remorse of 
his conscience, which doubtless continually gnawed his 
heart on account of so much injustice he practiced upon the 
Indians was about the only reward Coronado was entitled to. 
The author of this work believes that he, among all the Span- 
ish explorers, has the least right to claim honorable mention 
in the annals of history, excepting for his famous journey 
which gave as a result the discovery of the Indian provinces 
of New Mexico and of the plains which today form the states 
of Kansas and Oklahoma. Thus ended the romantic voyage 
of Coronado, and with the voyage ended also in a tragical 
manner the life of Coronado. Some English speaking histo- 
rians, among them Bancroft, affirm that Mendoza contented 
himself with showing Coronado his displeasure on account of 
the bad result of his expedition; but thatafterwards he recon- 
ciled with him, allowing him to retain his post as governor of 
New Galicia. That seems to be an error, for not only was 
Coronado suspended from that high dignity, but was, accord- 
ing to other old historians, completely ignored by the viceroy, 
the contempt with which he was received being the cause of 
his death. 

We shall now close this chapter with a few words of admi- 
ration and respect for the memory of those venerable Fran- 
ciscans Juan de Padilla and Fr. Luis de Escalona, the only 
ones in all the expedition who deserve honorable mention for 
they were, indeed, real conquerors, having conquered with the 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 165 

sacrifice of their own lives the only true empire, the Empire 
of Eternal Glory. 

Pr. Juan Padilla was by birth an Andalusian. He came 
to Mexico as a Franciscan monk between the years 1525 and 
1535. Fr. Luis (Juan de la Cruz de Escalona) was born in 
France, but of Spanish parentage. Many historians do not 
believe that he was a priest, but simply a lay brother; this 
author believes he was a priest. Be that as it may, the 
certainty about them is that both were the first martyrs 
who with their blood baptized these lands without any other 
hope but that of converting the Indians and of sacrificing 
their lives to give in that manner testimony of the holy truths 
of Christianity. Fr. Juan de Padilla was assassinated by 
the Indians of la Quivira while he was preaching to them 
the Christian doctrine. Concerning this there is no doubt, 
even if some historians doubt that he ever arrived at la 
Quivira, Prince, for example, affirms "that he was martyred 
before he had entered the town."' (See Prince's Hist, of New 
Mex., p. 145). Bancroft says that Fr. Padilla suffered mar- 
tyrdom at the hands of the Quivira Indians because he 
insisted on going to preach the gospel to a tribe that was 
at war with the Quiviras (see Bancroft's Hist, of Arizona and 
New Mexico, p. 67). On that point Bancroft agrees with 
Castaiieda. The same opinion is held by Archbishop Sal- 
pointe ("Soldiers of the Cross" q. v ) and Rev. Fr James H. 
Defouri. ("Sketch of the Catholic Church in New Mexico" 
q. V.) Concerning the death of Fr. Padilla there was proof, 
for the Portuguese who accompanied him to la Quivira 
escaped from the hands of the Indians at Father Padilla's 
instance, and was able to see from a hiding place, as it will 
be seen afterwards, how the Indians killed Fr. Padilla with 
stones. Concerning Fr. Luis not a word was ever heard 
again after the soldiers separated from him, who carried 
sheep for him to Cicuye, from which fact it is inferred that 
he had a similar fate as Fr. Padilla. 

This chapter ends here. In the next we shall treat of the 
so-called foundation of Santa Fe and of the voyages of Fathers 
Agustin Rodriguez (Ruiz), Francisco Lopez y Juan de Santa 
Maria, Espejo, etc., etc. 



166 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Before commencing the next chapter the Author desires to 
remark that in the appendix of this work he will give the 
sketched list of the 20 Franciscan martyrs who sprinkled 
with their blood for the love of God and the conversion of the 
gentiles the virgin soil of this portion of the new world, 
commencing with Fathers Juan de Padilla and Escalona and 
ending with those who perished in the uprising of the year 
1680. 




The aV)ove is the picture of the royal tombs In the Cathedral of Granada, Spain. On the left side is tl 
tomb of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, under whose protection Columbus discovered America, Octobt 
12, 1492. The tomb on the riglit side contains the remains of King Philip, the Handsome, and his wife, Quee 
Jane, known in history as the "Crazy Queen." This photograph was secured lately for me in Granada, Spaii 
by Don Pablo M. Hernandez Lopez, son of my distinguished friend, Dr Luis Hernandez, of Spain.— Th 

AtJTHOK. 




CHAPTER VL 



The Foundation of Santa Fe Discussed — Voyage of Francisco de 
Ibarra — Fr. Agustin Rodriguez, (Ruiz), Fr. Francisco Lopez y Fr. 
de Santa Maria — Ghamuscado Guts a Figure — Discussion of the 
Origin of the Name "^New Mexico" — Gastafio de Sosa, Bonilla 
and Juan Humana — End of the First Book. 



There are some writers who affirm that the City of Santa 
Pe was founded in the year 15i3 by Fr. Juan de Padilla and 
his companions. Among them we have the Reverend James 
H. Defouri, of grateful memory, whom this author had the 
honor of counting among his particular friends. Father 
Defouri is the only one of those writers who bases his asser- 
tion on what, apparently, has any show of authority, and 
for that reason the author of this work will consider his 
work alone in the present discussion. Speaking of Coro- 
nado's return to Mexico (to which we referred in the last 
chapter), Rev. Father Defouri says: 

"Many of the soldiers, and even some officers, who did 
not want to return to Mexico, deserted the army and 
remained at Tiguex, founding there the first colony of white 
men. That happened in April, 1543, — a date, we can believe 
and affirm, Santa Fe was founded, a mission being estab- 
lished there, although that name (Santa Fe) was not given it 
then, but in the year 1598, in which Juan de Onate in his 
Discourse oj the Journeys which the captain of his majesty 
made from New Spain, to the Province of New Mexico, Sep- 
tember 9, 1598, to the City of San Francisco of the Span- 
iards, which at present they are building for themselves.'"* 

The very authority quoted by Father Defouri, "Dis- 
courses, etc.," says that it was when Onate visited the place 
that the foundation of the city commenced, that is, after the 
year 1598. It could not have been otherwise, for from what 
we read in the foregoing chapter, we know that Coronado 
carried with himself all the soldiers and officers of the army 

*Rev. J. H. Defouri's "Hist. Sk. of the Catholic Church in N. M."' 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 169 

"without leaving in New Mexico any other Europeans than 
Fr. Juan de Padilla, Fr. Luis de Escalona, and the Portu- 
guese, Andres del Campo; that Juan de Padilla started at 
once for Quivira, the other friar remaining at Cicuye (Pecos). 
The author of this work, after an examination and compar- 
ison of the writings of all the writers which he has been 
able to consult, excepting Prince, who does not say a word 
about the foundation of Santa Fe, is of opinion that the villa 
of Santa Fe was not founded before the year 1605, the date 
in which Onate, as will be seen in the chapter (post) which 
treats of Onate, founded it. On that matter Archbishop 
Salpointe,* I3ancroftf and the majority of authors, who have 
written on that point, are all agreed. 

Here we shall leave what pertains to the foundation of the 
city of Santa Fe, in order to treat in the following chapters 
of the voyages of Ibarra, Fr. Agustin Rodriguez (Ruiz) and 
Antonio de Espejo and those who followed him. 

The Entry of Ibarra. 

About the years, 1563-65, Don Francisco Ibarra was gover- 
nor of the provinces comprised today in New Vizcay, (today 
the State of Durango). Ibarra enjoyed the good friendship 

*Salpointe: "Soldiers of the Cross." 51. 

fBancroft: Hist, of N. Mex. and Ariz., 133. 

Note — For further confirmation of our contention that Tiguex 
was on the Rio Grande, the reader is referred to the unusually 
important and highly interesting- description of Tiguex (Tiliues as 
Benavidez calls it) g-iven by Father Benavidez to the king", which is 
made part of this history as appendix No. 1. The description so given 
by Father Benavidez is so accurate and it agrees so clearly, and so 
perfectly, with what we have said on that subject, that it leaves no 
room for doubt, Father Benavidez closing his description thus: 
"The river is called the Rio Bravo and must have in width the dis- 
tance covered by the shot of an arquebus." ( See appendix 1, under 
head "Tihues") C'astaileda, Coronado's co-explorer and historian of 
the expedition, (ante), says on the point which seems to have led some 
writers to believe that a certain number of Spaniards remained in 
New Mexico besides the two friars and the Portuguese, that some of 
the gentlemen wanted to remain in order to be in possession of the 
country until the viceroy could send reinforcements, and asked for 60 
soldiers, but that the soldiers declined to remain and so all went 
back with Coronado.— The Author. 



170 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

of the Viceroy of Mexico, Luis de Velasco, because a daughter 
of Velasco was married to Diego de Ibarra, an uncle of Fran- 
cisco de Ibarra. The uncle of Don Francisco being thus 
related, it was not a matter of any difficulty to Don Francisco 
to obtain the appointment of captain general of the expedition 
which Velasco in obedience to the command of the king of 
Spain, Charles I., was organizing in order to explore the lands 
discovered by Coronado 21 years before. At the end of the 
year 1564, then, Ibarra set out at the head of the expedition. 
It has never been possible to know anything positive about 
the lands that Ibarra visited; there is not a single historian 
who has been able to investigate with precision the places 
visited by Ibarra. By following his tracks, it is no easier for 
the reader to discourse about the directions traveled by 
Ibarra's expedition than it is for the historian. In other 
words, the conclusion, after reading Ibarra's narration, may 
be made agreeable to the theory that he did visit New Mexico, 
but not following the same route followed by Coronado from 
the fact of mentioning the Rio de las Vacas (Pecos) at the edge 
of "very extensive plains."' With the same facility the contrary 
can be affirmed in regard to what he tells us respecting the 
Indian towns he discovered, on account of those towns having 
names totally different from those of the pueblos and places 
visited by Coronado. According to Bancroft (citing Ibarra's 
narration) Ibarra was accompanied by 50 soldiers, among 
them came Pedro de Tobar (a captain of Coronado), several 
friars with Father Acebedo as superior. The course of his 
expedition was northward, but to the right of Coronado's 
route. According to Vargas,* Ibarra revolved around the 
northern part until he struck the "Valleys of the Cows.'" 
Beaumont also quoted by Bancroft, says that in the place 
when Ibarra had arrived at the plains of Las Vacas he found 
a large city abandoned by its inhabitants, called "Pagme," 
that its buildings were built of limestone, that it had tine 
houses and covered more than three leagues. That, if, indeed, 
it is not an invention of Beaumont, as he does not give us the 
source of his observation, is the only incident worthy of men- 

* Vargas: N. Mex. Testimonio 129— Cited also by Bancroft's N. 
Mex. and Ariz. 72. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 171 

tion, and, at that, only because of the mention made of "the^ 
plains and River of Las Vacas;" but not even, on that account, 
does the expedition of Ibarra deserve to be considered of 
importance in history. Let us now pass over to the consider- 
ation of the voyage of the Rev. Fr. Augustin Rodriguez (called 
by Espejo and other historians, Fr. Agustin Ruiz) and his 
companions, and of those who followed after them. 

Voyages of Fr. Augustin Rodriguez (Ruiz) and Expedition or Espejo. 

All English speaking historians who have written on the 
history of New Mexico, have apparently fallen into the error 
of considering Fr. Augustin Rodriguez (Ruiz) as a priest. In 
spite, however, of the fact that in our times the error of call- 
ing the priests "frailes" has become very common, "fraile," 
friar, and "sacerdote,"' priest, are not analogous terms, 
either term having a distinct meaning. Anglo American 
writers fall more generally into this error. Fr. Augustin 
Rodriguez was not a priest; he was simply a friar, layman, 
which signifies a brother who enters a religious order, accord-^ 
ing to Escriche, one who takes the "habit'" in any of the 
regular orders and has made "the three vows of obedience, 
poverty and chastity;" if the friar performs the services cor- 
responding to the altar and choir of his order, he is known and 
designated by the name of "friar of mass and the kettle," 
(fraile de misa y olla). The priests who accompanied Fr. 
Rodriguez were Fathers Juan de Santa Maria and Francisco 
Lopez. Fr. Rodriguez was the initiator of the voyage we are 
now considering in this chapter, and his success in moving 
the heart of the viceroy and his superiors was secured by the 
Christian charity which so distinguished him among his 
brethren, according to Torquemada.* 

In the year 1581, when the Count of Coruiia, Don Lorenzo 
Suarez de Mendoza,was Viceroy of New Spain, Fr. Rodriguez 
was residing at the convent in Zacatecas, to which convent 
the pueblo known by the name of SanBartolome belonged. A 
few days after his arrival at Zacatecas he commenced his 
evangelical pilgrimages among the Indians that belonged to 
the convent, or mission, of Zacatecas. In one of those pil- 



*— Torquemada: Mont. Indiananem, vol. 3, (i26. 



172 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OP NEW MEXICO. 

grimages (missions) he visited the pueblo of San Bartolomfe 
in the extreme south of what is today the State of Chihuahua, 
and it was then that he heard from the Indians of said pueblo, 
about other lands peopled by Indians who lived in terrace 
houses, dressed in cotton and had much corn. Fr. Rodri- 
guez, noticing the good disposition of those Indians, and their 
willingness to be converted, made several trips to the mother- 
convent to obtain preachers. But as in these places the friars 
were none too many, there being a great deal to do and to 
provide for, the good Pr. Augustin returned alone, until 
lastly having his seat and dwelling place in the valley called 
San Bartolome, some Indians, seeing the great desire he 
showed of finding new peoples to convert them to God, gave 
him information of certain large towns that existed far from 
there, which, because they had so many people, they called 
them "New Mexico.'* (The author takes notice of this passage 
because Espejo does not claim to have given that name to the 
province.) And in order to satisfy himself of the truth he 
advanced inland by the way they pointed out to him towards 
the north and found good towns. 

That information was sufficient for Pr. Rodriguez to make 
up his mind to penetrate into those regions and effect their 
conversion, or, at least, receive the martyrdom which he so 
fondly longed for. He at once undertook a trip to the mother 
convent to inform his superiors of the news he had received, 
and to ask missionaries in order to go and christiaiiize the 
Indians of those lands. On this occasion God vouchsafed to 
crown his efforts with marked success, for the prelate gave 
him two priests for the time being, who offered themselves 
for that journey until they received advices of what might 
be more convenient. One of them, w4io went as the superior 
of his companions, was called Pr. Francisco Lopez, and had 
come from the province of Andalusia, and the other, Juan de 
Santa Maria. As he was assured by the father superior, 
that notwithstanding the king's prohibition issued long be- 
fore, to the effect, that no expeditions should be made into 
the lands discovered b}^ Cabeza de Vaca, Niza, and Coronado, 
there would be no difficulty in obtaining due permission from 
Viceroy Coruiia, Fr. Rodriguez (Ruiz) undertook a trip to the 
•City of Mexico carrying a letter from his superior to the 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 173- 

viceroy. The viceroy authorized the entry as solicited by 
Pray Rodriguez, giving him au'ihority to organize an escort 
of not more than twenty soldiers; but Fray Rodriguez was 
unable to gather more than nine soldiers who enlisted for 
the voyage, more eager to find gold than to protect the 
priests. These were Pedro Bustamante, Hernan Gallegos> 
Felipe Escalante, Hernando Barrado, Jos^ Sanchez, Pedro 
Sanchez de Chavez, Herrera, Fuensalida and Francisco San- 
chez Chamuscado, who was chosen captain of the soldiers. 
In addition to the soldiers, eight Indians went with them, as 
servants, and a mestizo (half breed) called Juan Bautista. 
making all together a party of twenty-one men. 

First Mission in New Mexico — Discovery of First Mines 1581. 

On the 6th of June 1581, Fray Rodriguez, accompanied by 
the other priests and the rest of the men set out from San 
Bartolome towards the river de Conchos near San Bartolome. 
When they had reached that river, as far as its junction with 
the river of the North, they gave it the name of "Guadal- 
quivir," crossing it at the same point where Cabeza de Vaca 
had crossed it 45 years before. Thence they travelled 20 
days northward meeting with a large number of Indian 
Pueblos, which according to the direction they were travel- 
ling, were of the province of the pueblos visited by one of the 
captains of Coronado near the place where stands today the 
town of Socorro in New Mexico To these pueblos, Fr. Rodri- 
guez gave the name of "San Felipe." From thence they 
followed up their journey till they reached the province of 
Tiguex settling at the pueblo of Puaray in which they estab. 
lished their settlement thus founding the first mission in 
New Mexico. Thence Chamuscado with the other soldiers 
made several trips into the interior of the other provinces in 
search of gold, for that was the only object that induced 
Chamuscado and the other soldiers to accompany the priests. 
As they did not find the gold they were after, although they 
did discover some mines, they determined to return to New 
Spain, and report leaving the priests and Fray Rodriguez 
with the friendly Indians and the mestizo, at Puaray. They 
started on their return trip towards the end of December 
1581 or the beginning of January 1582. 



174 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

A few days after they had arrived at San Bartolome, Cha- 
in uscado and two of his soldiers, Bustamante and Gallegos, 
of the soldiers who had accompanied him set out for the city 
of Mexico to give testimony of what they had seen and 
discovered. Chamuscado did not reach Mexico, having died 
on the way. Pedro de Bustamante and his companion, 
Hernan Gallegos, after burying Chamuscado, continued their 
journey, reached Mexico City safely and on the 16th day of 
May, 1582, appeared before Viceroy Mendoza, and made a 
report of the journey in the form of a deposition, under oath, 
reporting the whole journey, the finding of mines; how they 
had left Fr. Rodriguez and Fathers Lopez and Father Juan 
de Santa Maria in the pueblo of Puaray, and how their captain 
Chamuscado had died 30 leagues from Santa Barbara. 

Barrado Appears and Reports Death of the Friars. 

It was October the 20th, 1582, when Viceroy Mendoza 
hearing that another of Chamuscado's soldiers was in the city, 
and was circulating the report that Fr. Rodriguez and 
Fathers Lopez and Juan de Santa Maria had been killed by 
the Indians in the Tiguex province, caused said Barrado to 
appear and give his testimony under oath, which order 
Barrado complied with immediately. 

After giving a detailed account of the journey made by him 
in company of Chamuscado, Fr. Rodriguez and Fathers L6pez 
and Juan de Santa Maria and the other soldiers, etc. , he stated 
that after his return with Chamuscado and the other soldiers 
to Santa Barbara, and staying there for three months, more 
or less, one of the Indians who had remained with said reli- 
gious in Puaray had arrived at Santa Barbara, that from that 
Indian, whose name was Francisco, he learned of the killing 
of Fr. Rodriguez and the two Fathers, Lopez and Juan de 
SantaMaria; that said Indian had seen the Indians of Puaray 
kill Fr. Rodriguez and how he was certain the other two 
Fathers had been killed.* 

*NOTE— The foregoing- report of the killino- of Fr. Rodriguez and 
Fathers Lopez and Juan de Santa Maria is taken from vol. 15, p. p. 81 
et seq. of the "Coleccion de Documentos Inedictos Helativos al Descubri- 
mientos, Conquista y rganizacion de las Antiguas Posesiones Espatiolas de 
Ami'rica ti Oceania." which tog-ether with other important volumes of 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 175 

Bustamante's Report About the Mines. 

"In like manner, we discovered in said land eleven silver 
mines with very rich veins and the ore of three of them was 
brought to this city, and given to his excellency; he sent it 
to be assayed by the assayer of the mint, who assayed them, 
and found one sample to contain 50 per cent of silver; the 
other contained twenty marks to the hundred weight, and the 
other five marks." 

The report of Chamuscado's soldiers alarmed the inhabit- 
ants of Mexico especially the Franciscans at Santa Barbara, 
(San Bartolome) who, encouraged and directed by Father 
Bernardino Beltran, commenced to discuss ways and means 
to go in search of their companions, inducing, by entreaties, 
Don Antonio de Espejo, a man of great wealth, who at that 
time was sojourning in Santa Barbara, to undertake the 
voyage. We will leave Espejo and theFranciscans here making 
preparations for the expedition, while we relate what hap- 
pened to Fray Rodriguez and his companions. 

Tragical End of Fr. Rodriguez. — New Mexico is the Name Given to 
the Province. 

After the departure of Chamuscado and his companions, 
Fr. Rodriguez and the priests, Fr. Lopez and Fr. Santa Maria, 
thought of devising the proper means to inform their supe- 
riors of the good disposition of the Indians to receive the 
gospel and to have them send out more missionaries. Father 
Santa Maria volunteered to undertake alone the voyage, but 
was killed by the Indians shortly after starting. Concerning 
that occurrence, Torquemada says: 

"The friars kept on forward in their voyage, seeing that 
the natives of those lands received them kindly all along 
them, and they went further in for a distance of another 150 

the same "Coleccion," reached me from Spain after my first Spanish 
edition of this history had g-one to press. Upon comparison of what 
I said in said Spanish edition on this journey of Fr. Rodrig-uez, etc. 
with what this orig-inal official report shows I found that the authors 
I relied upon in my said former edition do not fully ag-ree with this 
original official report, consequently, the reader is now assured that 
he is now receiving" an absolutely authentic account of that memorable 
expedition, as is the case with their accounts given here as correct and 
accurate. — The Author. ^ 



176 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

leagues, as far as New Mexico. /or they luere the ones to give 
that name to the country. Contemplating the bountiful harvest 
the Lord was placing before them and that the infidel Indians 
encountered no difficulty in receiving the gospel, as they were 
alone, they sought the means to notify their superiors of the 
great need there was of their sending out more husbandmen. 
For this purpose. Pray Juan de Santa Maria offered himself, 
a young man suited for any work, and with a willingness to 
suffer anything for the love of Jesus Christ. Fr. Juan was 
by nature inclined and devoted to the knowledge of astrolo- 
gical phenomena, for which reason he was commonly called 
by all the 'astrologer/ Relying on the knowledge he pos- 
sessed of the stars, he took another route in order to return 
(different from the one they had traveled) and in order also to 
see what new things he might thereby find. He had scarcely 
traveled three days, when the infidel Indians killed him by a 
cruel kind of death; for, having laid down to sleep, resting by 
the roadside, they cast a very large stone over his head, 
which took his life away without his being able to breathe." 
Father Francisco Lopez and Fr. Rodriguez (Ruiz) accom- 
panied by the mestizo and the friendly Indians that had 
remained, settled permanently at Puaray, making that point 
the center of their operations; but they did not last long in 
the exercise of their sacred ministry, for they were after- 
wards, all of them, martyred by the Indians. Father Lopez, 
first, and then Fr. Rodriguez, the friendly Indians and the 
mestizo. Let us hear Torquemada describe the martyrdom 
of these holy men and of the faithful servants that accom- 
panied them: 

Death of Father Lopez and Fr. Rodriguez. 

"Fr. Francisco Lopez andFr. Agustin Rodriguez remained 
in the em.ploy of this administration in the pueblo, where they 
took up their dwelling, trying to learn the language of the 
Indians in order to preach to them with more clearness the 
law of God, which they taught them by means of signs. En- 
gaged as they were in this good work, it happened that one 
day there came to the pueblo where they were staying, some 
Indians that were hostile to the ones where they were quar- 
tered, with weapons in their hands possibly to kill them, 
because they had received the religious men in their company 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 177 

and were feeding them. Father Francisco stepped out to 
reprimand them for the evil they were doing, and to persuade 
them to desist from their discord and hatred, and to hve in 
peace with their neighbors as they were all one people. The 
barbarians, who did not know God, nor respected his minis- 
ters, like another Pharaoh, who, being told by Moses what 
God commanded, said: 'Who is the Lord that I may hear his 
voice and do what you say?" Looked at one another and 
said among themselves: 'Who is this crier that thus comes 
out to preach to us what we do not wish to hear?' And turn- 
ing their wrath against him they did not wait to hear any 
more reasons, but all, at the same time, shot their arrows at 
him and struck him down dead to the earth." 

With the death of Father Lopez, Fr. Rodriguez (Ruiz), the 
friendly Indians and the mestizo were left alone among the 
hostile Indians, all of them realizingthat theend of their lives 
was also very near, for the pitiful, tragical close of the 
lives of their companions was for them an infallible sign of 
the fate that awaited them. So it was, and the disastrous 
voyage, which these ministers of the Lord conceived, closed 
with their death. How Fr. Rodriguez (Ruiz), his Indians and 
the mestizo came to their death, Torquemada also tells us in 
these words: 

"Not wishing to endure him, (for there is no greater rage, 
nor torment for the wicked than to be reprimanded by the up- 
right man) they killed him within a few days, and afterwards 
did the same with the Christian Indians who were with him 
that they might not survive to testify concerning their mis- 
deeds. Nevertheless, they did not go without their punish 
ment, for Antonio Espejo went shortly after in search of 
those priests and in demand of those lands, and gave them a 
good chastisement." 

Let us now return to New Spain to consider the steps 
taken by the Franciscans and Espejo in order to undertake 
the journey of deliverance to which we have alluded in the 
foregoing paragraphs. We left Father Beltran making pre- 
parations for said voyage and we are now going to speak 
about it. Before going into the subject, however the author 
calls the attention of the reader to the following remark, viz: 
that all he is going to say concerning Espejo's voyage, save 



178 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

the author's comments, is reproduced from the reports of Es- 
pejo himself, as they were written by the historian of his expe- 
dition, which reports are now in the possession of the author of 
this work, said author having received them direct from Spain 
after the first Spanish edition was pubhshed. With this ex- 
planation, the frequent quoting from those reports will be 
avoided. The voyage follows: 

Espejo s Entry into New Mexico — 1583. 

Some difference is perceived between Espejo and Torque- 
mada in what relates to the death of Fr. Juan de Santa 
Maria and his companions, Espejo affirming that said priests 
had been murdered before Chamuscado and the other sol- 
diers returned to San Bartolome, while Torquemada says 
that the soldiers, when they returned to New Spain, had left 
said priests alive and in the exercise of their ministry. One, 
however, is naturally inclined to believe that Espejo is mis- 
taken, and that Torquemada spoke with full knowledge of 
the facts, if the testimony given by Chamuscado and his 
companions is taken into account. Let us now enter upon 
the consideration of Espejo's voyage. 

Espejo s Voyage. 

On the 10th day of November, 1582, the voyage was under- 
taken, Espejo and Father Bernardino Beltran starting from 
San Bartolome accompanied by fourteen soldiers whose 
names were the following: Juan Lopez de Ibarra, Diego 
P^rez de Lujan, Gaspar de Lujan, Cristobal Sdnchez, Grego- 
rio Hernandez, Juan Hernandez, Miguel Sanchez Valenciano, 
with his wife and two sons, L^zaro Sanchez, Miguel Sanchez 
Nevado, Pedro Hernandez de Almansa, Francisco Barrato, 
Bernardo de Luna, Juan de Frias and the Fathers Pedro de 
Heredia y Juan de la Cruz; in addition to these soldiers and 
priests, Espejo carried with him some Indian servants and 
friends. They all went well supplied with arms, food pro- 
visions and mules and horses, Espejo bearing all the expense. 
The route taken by Espejo w^as the same that had been fol- 
lowed by Fr. Agustin Rodriguez and his companions, travel- 
ing along the Concho River to its continence with the Rio 
Grande and meeting, after two days' journey, with the 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 179 

firstencampment of the Concho Indians who received him with 
demonstrations of joy and gave him guides to lead him as far 
as the nation of the Pasaquates, distant 24 miles from that 
place. The Pasaquates also received the Spaniards amid 
demonstrations of sincere sympathy giving them new guides 
to take them to the nation of the Indians called Tobasos. The 
Tobasos, however, on receiving advice of the coming of the 
Spaniards, and as some years before, according to Espejo, 
some Spaniards who passed through there had carried away 
as captives some of the Indians of that nation, were afraid 
Espejo should do the same, and, on that account, abandoned 
their pueblo though they returned shortly after at the 
instance of Espejo. Concerning that incident Espejo says: 

"It was known afterwards that some years before, certain 
soldiers had come through there in search of mines, and had 
taken as captives some natives, a circumstance which made 
them fearful and distrustful of the rest. The captain gave 
orders as to how they should be called, assuring them that 
no harm should be done to them; and did it so skilfully that 
he made many of them come whom he regaled and gave gifts, 
treating them kindly, and declaring to them, through the 
interpreter, that they were not going to do anybody harm 
whereby they again were quieted, and consented to receive 
crosses, and that the mysteries contained in them should be 
explained to them, showing that they received thereby a 
great deal of contentment, after which demonstration they 
(the Tobasos) went accompanying them (the Spaniards) until 
they led them into a peopled land of another and different 
nation which was about 12 leagues distant from theirs; they 
use the bow and the arrow, and go naked." 

That nation the Spaniards called '"Patarabuyes" and the 
Indians called it "Jumanos."" Concerning them, Espejo tells 
us that it was a province of many pueblos, of very large 
population and many very large rivers, of which the Rio 
Grande was the largest. These Indians, notwithstanding 
their return to their pueblo, attacked the Spaniards during 
the night, killing several horses and abandoned their pueblo. 
The next day Espejo, succeeded in pacifying them and in 
having them return to their pueblo. This first encounter 
with the Indians is thus described to us by Espejo: 



180 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Espejo's First Fight. 

"They are a warlike people and they at once showed it, for 
the first night our men made camp, they struck at us with 
arrows and killed five horses and badly wounded as many 
and would have left none alive had it not been for the guards 
that defended them. Having done this damage they deserted 
the place, and climbed up a mountain (sierra) that was near 
by, where the captain went next morning with five well armed 
soldiers and an interpreter named Pedro, an Indian of their 
own nation, and with good expressions he quieted them and 
left them at peace, causing them to come down to their pueblo 
and houses and persuaded them to inform their neighbors 
that we were not men who harmed any one; neither were we 
going to take away from them their possessions — a thing he 
succeeded in accomplishing by his prudence, and by giving 
the caciques some strings of glass beads, hats and other 
trinkets we carrried for this purpose. With this and with 
the good treatment we gave them, many of them accompanied 
our men for some days, travelling always along the bank of 
the said Rio Grande."' 

Espej'o Hears of Gabeza de Vaca's Journey. 

Thence the Spaniards travelled always up stream between 
large numbers of pueblos, being everywhere received in a 
friendly manner by the Indians. After having travelled for 
twelve days more, they came to a pueblo where the Indians 
used the sign of the cross and raised their eyes to heaven 
as if they prayed, whereupon one of the priests asked the 
Indians where and how they had learned to do that, to which 
they answered, that years before, three Christians and a 
negro had passed through there. These were no others 
than Cabeza de Vaca, Dorantes, Maldonado and Estevanico. 
The Spaniards continued their journey, always northward 
along the river, without meeting any opposition from any of 
the many pueblos they traversed, but rather being the 
objects of kind receptions till they came to a pueblo with 
houses of three and four stories, where they received infor- 
mation that further into the interior there were many nations 
of Indians dressed in clothes made of wool and cotton, like 
the Spaniards. Considering the route Espejo was travelling 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 181 

and the many journeys they had made, it is reasonable to 
believe that this last pueblo was near the Province of 
Tiguex, as they were not long in arriving at the said 
Province of Tiguex, whei'e they positively learned that Fr. 
Rodriguez and the Fathers Francisco Lopez and Juan de 
Santa Maria had been murdered. Espejo thus relates that 
event: 

"After having stayed in this province for four days, and 
at a little distance therefrom, they came to another province 
called Tiguex, which was composed of sixteen pueblos; in 
one of which, called Poala, (Puaray) they were informed 
that the Indians had killed the two fathers. Fray Francisco 
Lopez, Juan de Santa Maria, and Fray Agustin, whom they 
were looking for, and with them the Indians had also killed 
three boys and a mestizo. When the Indians of this pueblo 
and their neighbors saw our men, feeling the remorse of 
their own conscience, and fearful of being punished for the 
death of the said fathers, they did not remain, but leaving 
their houses they climbed up the near-by mountains whence 
they could not be made to descend, although we tried it with 
all sorts of caresses and contrivances. They found in the 
pueblos and houses many supplies and great abundance of 
turkeys and different kinds of rich metals. It could not be 
ascertained precisely how many were the people of this 
province for the reason (as I have said) of their having gone 
to the sierra.'' 

- The Spaniards encamped there for several days because 
there were many among them who deemed it a useless task 
to proceed further with the journey, as the chief object of 
the voyage, the deliverance of Fr. Agustin Rodriguez and 
his companions, could not be realized. Espejo, however, was 
able at last to persuade his companions and the religious to 
follow further inland in order to verify the information that 
the Indians were giving them concerning the existence of 
other pueblos which the Indians declared were very large 
in population and rich in corn, silver and gold, Espejo next 
determined to go himself with only two of his companions to 
explore the new lands, leaving at that point the remainder 
of the expedition with the intention of establishing there his 
rendezvous. After two days' travel Espejo arrived at a 



182 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

province of eleven pueblos and of considerable population, so 
large that, to use Espejo's expression, "they numbered over 
40,000 souls."' Espejo continues his description of what he 
saw in that province in these words: "It was a very firm 
and well supplied land whose boundaries touch the lands of 
Cibola, where there are many cows with the hides of which 
they dress, and also with cotton goods." Espejo also found 
in that pueblo indications of the existence in the neighboi'- 
hood of rich minerals — which fact prompted him to return 
to his place of rendezvous to inform his companions about 
the discovery of what he thought to be a group of valuable 
mines. Espejo says: "There are signs of many and very 
rich mines, as we found metals from them in the houses of 
the Indians, who have and adore idols made of these metals." 

The good news brought by Espejo had the effect of chang- 
ing the minds of those who wanted to return to New Spain, 
for, in addition to what Espejo told them concerning the rich 
minerals, they had already received advices of another pro- 
vince further north which had been also very much exagger- 
ated inducing them all to go to that province (the province 
of the Queres with which the reader is already acquainted.) 
Espejo's account concerning that province, says literally: 

"Having arrived at the rendezvous (as said) they had 
advices concerning another province called Los Queres which 
lay on the Rio del Norte six leagues distant, and as they set 
out thitherward and arrived to within a league of it, a large 
number of Indians came out to receive them peacefully and 
to request them to go with them to their pueblos, saying that 
they would be well received and entertained. They saw only 
five pueblos in this province in which there was a very large 
number of people, and the people they saw were over fifteen 
thousand souls, who adore idols, like their neighbors. They 
found in one of these pueblos a magpie in a cage, and some 
paintings such as those that are brought from China with 
the sun, the moon, and many stars painted on them. On 
reckoning there the latitude they found themselves at 30^ 
degrees north." 

From that province, Espejo changed his route towards the 
northeast, visiting the province of Cia (called also Cuvaines) 
which, the reader will remember, is composed of five pueblos 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 183 

of which Cia was the largest and the principal one. The popu- 
lation which Espejo says he found there does not agree with 
what Castaneda tells us, for, according to Espejo, the inhabi- 
tants of those five pueblos were "over twenty thousand souls." 
Those Indians seemed to Espejo very much advanced in civi- 
lization, for "they judged them to be the most curious people 
and of better policies than any they had so far seen, and of 
better government showing rich metals and the mountains 
from which they mined them out." Here they again received 
news of another province which lay towards the Northwest 
and to which they determined to go. That province was 
Jemez (Espejo called it Amejes). There also the Spaniards 
were well received, but, as they were informed of another 
province larger which was towards the Southwest, (Acoma) 
they pursued their route until they reached it. The Acoma 
Indians received them with the same good will they had 
received Alvarado forty years before. Here Espejo gives a 
description of the rock upon which the pueblo is built. As 
we already informed the reader about that, we will omit what 
Espejo says concerning the same, contenting ourselves with 
the statement that Espejo was treated with more frankness 
than was Alvarado, and his men; for, during the three days 
that Espejo and his men remained in that place, they made 
him presents of (blankets) and robes well worked, and lots 
of provisions, and gave them also "one of their solemn 
dances coming out dressed in gallant garments which they 
enjoyed exceedingly."' 

Espejo Finds Goronado's Monuments. 
Thenceforth, Espejo continued his march towards the West 
till he came to the province of Cibola, finding at Zuni the 
crosses Coronado had left there, and three of the Christian 
Indians who had come with Coronado, called, Andres de 
Cuyoacan, Gaspar de Mejico, and Antonio de Guadalajara 
"who had almost forgotten their own language and under- 
stood well that of the natives although the Spaniards after 
a few trials with them, understood them easily," (Espejo's 
words.) These Christian Indians informed Espejo of another 
still larger province which was at seventy days' travel from 
that point, having many, and very large pueblos, a large lake 
and very rich (deposits) of gold. Espejo and some of the 



184 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Spaniards wished to go and visit the province, but, as Father 
Beltran w^ith the greater part of the Spaniards opposed it, 
Espejo abandoned the hope of making the trip to said province 
with all his men; whereupon he concluded to make the trip 
himself with such of the men as were willing to follow him, 
which he did undertaking his march towards those lands 
with some of his companions allowing the Father and those 
who wanted to follow him to return to New Spain, if so they 
desired. After having travelled twenty eight days west- 
wards, they arrived at one province which, according to 
Espejo, had over "Fifty thousand souls."' These Indians 
threatened the Spaniards with death if they insisted on 
arriving at their pueblos, but Espejo was able to pacify them 
by means of presents he made them, whereupon they per- 
mitted him to enter accompanied by 150 friendly Indians 
and the Christian Indians that had come with the Spaniards 
from Cibola. At their entry into the pueblo the Spaniards 
were received amid rejoicings by the Indians and their 
caciques "who sprinkled quite a quantity of corn meal over 
the ground through which their horses passed." The 
Indians called that pueblo "Laguato.'" 

Thence the caciques sent word to the other pueblos to 
come and see the Spaniards, and many Indians from said 
pueblos did subsequently come loaded with presents for the 
Spaniards. Great efforts were made by the caciques of 
those pueblos to get the Spaniards to go with them, but, Es- 
pejo, suspecting some treason, excused himself from visiting 
them, stating to the caciques that as the horses were "very 
fierce" it was necessary to prevent them from killing In- 
dians by constructing for the horses limestone fences (for- 
tress). The Indians, fearing that what Espejo said might 
happen to them, offered to construct the fences themselves, 
as Espejo tells us: 

"The Indians believed it so well, that in a few hours they 
got many of their people together and built an enclosure 
which our men wanted, with incredible promptness. Be- 
sides this, upon the captain announcing that he desired to 
leave, they brought him a present of forty thousand cotton 
blankets, striped and white, and a large quantity of hand- 
kerchiefs with embroideries, and many other things, among 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 185 

them rich metals which seemed to have much silver. They 
obtained from these Indians important information regard- 
ing the great lake above mentioned, and confirmed what the 
others had said concerning the riches and abundance of gold."' 

Espejo Finds Rich Mines — 1583. 

Espejo seeing the good result of his stratagem, sent the 
baggage to Zuni with five of his companions and the friendly 
Indians, and he continued his voyage towards said mines 
with only four of his men and the guides he had with him, 
travelhng always westward, coming to the mines at a dis- 
tance of forty-five miles from that place. The mines proved 
to be so rich that Espejo himself was able to touch ore with 
his own hands. Let us hear him describe the find. "And 
he drew out with his own hands very rich ores, and with 
much silver, and the mines, which had very broad veins, 
were on a mountain which was easy of ascent, there being an 
open road for that purpose." 

At the spot where the mines lay there were two small 
rivers, one of them the author believes to have been the Gila, 
basing his opinion on what the Indians said to Espejo, viz: 
"And they told him, by signs, that beyond those mountains 
there was a river which was more than eight leagues wide and 
that it flowed towards the Sea of the North, and that on both 
banks of it there are many pueblos, so great, that in compari- 
son with them, the ones in which they actually were sojourn- 
ing, were only wards." Espejo did not doubt the narration 
of the Indians, but he resolved to return to Zuni, making the 
journey without any difficulty. He was agreeably surprised 
on his arrival there by meeting Pr. Bernardino Beltrdn and 
the soldiers who were before so determined upon going back 
to New Spain. The explanation given by Father Beltran 
for his not having gone was that, as the Indians appeared so 
well disposed to receive Christian instruction and be baptized 
he thought it part of his duty to remain in the exercise of his 
ministry. 

Espejo Visits the Province of The Queres and Other Pueblos.- Returns 
to San Bartolome by the Rio de Pecos — 1583. — More Mines Found. 

As Espejo manifested his desire of continuing the discov- 
ery of other pueblos, Father Beltran and the soldiers who 



186 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

had before decided to return to San Bartolome, agreed upon 
their return voyage, joining with them the soldier Gregorio 
Hernandez. Thus, at Zuiii, the expedition divided, Pr. Bel- 
tran and the soldiers mentioned going to San Bartolom^, and 
Espejo, with eight soldiers,, taking an eastward course till 
they struck the Rio del Norte, and kept travelling up stream 
till they reached the provinces of the Queres and the Hubates. 
In both provinces, Espejo was welcomed by the Indians, who 
overloaded him with presents and rich ores. Espejo asked 
them where had they obtained those ores, and the Indians 
showed him the mines, which were near, and from which 
Espejo and his companions drew out a goodly quantity of 
silver. Thence they continued traveling till they came to the 
province of los Tannos (which must have been the province 
of los Tanos, Galisteo, mentioned in the preceding chapter). 
In that province, Espejo did not receive the treatment he ex- 
pected, became disgusted, and his companions being so few 
he determined to return to San Bartolome. 

''As they were so few (as we have said) they determined to 
go, starting for the Christian land, and they put it into effect 
at the beginning of July of the year eighty-three, guided by 
an Indian who went with them, and took them by a different 
road from the one they had travelled on their coming, down 
a stream which they called "de las Vacas,"" because there was 
a great multitude of them along its banks, by which way they 
travelled 120 leagues, meeting them (the Vacas) continually. 
From here they set out to the Rio de Los Conchos. by which 
they had entered, and from there to the Valley of San Barto- 
lome, whence they had come to begin the discovery ; and when 
they arrived they found that said Fray Bernardino Beltrdn, 
and his companions, had arrived safely at said pueblo many 
days before, and that from thence they had gone to the Villa 
of Guadiana. (Espejo carried with him two Indians to be 
educated). At this town. Captain Antonio de Espejo gave 
correct information of everything above mentioned, which he 
immediately forwarded to the Count of Corona, viceroy of 
that kingdom, and ho to his majesty, and to the lords of his 
royal council of the Indies that they might ordain what should 
be their pleasure." 

Such was the result of the celebrated voyage of Espejo, the 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 187 

most beneficial in its results of all that had till then been 
made to these lands of New Mexico. He spent twelve months 
on the voyage, penetrating on the west very far to the interior 
of what is today the State of Arizona, and on the north to the 
province of Los Tanos, what is today Galisteo, in the County 
of Santa Fe. He had no mishap or evil encounter with the 
Indians, in spite of what Torquemada affirms (ante). He 
discovered rich minerals, while Father Beltran, also, did on 
his part much spiritual good. 

Origin of Name ''New Mexico." — Espejo calls it "Nueva Andalucia. ' 

Before closing his narrative of Espejo's voyage the Author 
of this work deems the occasion opportune to do away with 
another historical error which appears in a great number of 
historical works. That error is this: Many of the writers on 
the conquest of New Mexico affirm that it was Espejo who 
gave this territory the name of "New Mexico." This is an 
error, as we shall prove it by the very words of Espejo him- 
self. Among the rare works which the Author of this work 
was able to obtain through the kindness of Don Antonio Ara- 
gon Montejo, of Madrid, Spain, are Volumes III and XV^ 
entitled, "Documentos In^ditos Relativosal Descubrimiento, 
Conquista y Organizacion de las Antiguas Posesiones Espaiio- 
las de America y Oceania" (Inedited Documents Concerning 
the Discovery, Conquest and Organization of the Old Spanish 
Possessions in America and Oceanica, to which we have 
already referred). In Volume XV, at page 162, of said work 
is the report or narrative which Espejo sent to the Count of 
Corona, viceroy of New Spain at that time, which report 
Espejo sent immediately after his arrival at San Bartolom^. 
Espejo begins his report with these words; 

"It is about twenty-one days that I arrived at these 
mines of Santa Bdlbola (San Bartolom^ — the Author), of this 
district, very tired and fatigued of having traveled for more 
than a year to this date, more than eight hundred leagues, 
seeing and discovering the provinces of New Mexico, to ivhich 
I gave the name Nueva Andalucia.^' 

The fact, therefore, is established that it was not Espejo 
who gave this country, then a province of Spain, the name of 
New Mexico. 



188 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Espejo Solicits Authority to Colonize New Mexico — Gastano de Sosa, 
Bonilla and Lomas y Colmenares — Urdinola — Juan Humana — 
Don Cristobal Martin. 

Before Espejo's return to New Spain several Spaniards 
endeavored to obtain leave from the kingdom in order to 
prosecute the discoveries and colonization of 'New Mexico. 
Don Cristobal Martin a moneyed man residing in the City of 
Mexico offered to spend in the enterprise of the discovery as 
much as fifty thousand dollars obliging himself to secure 
three hundred colonists and to defray all the necessary 
expenses out of his individual purse. In return he demanded 
privileges and concessions so extraordinary that his petition, 
though approved by the Viceroy of Mexico, was rejected by 
the Council of the Indies. Espejo also thought of continuing 
his work of colonization, and, believing himself with more 
rights than Don Cristobal and the other claimants, absolutely 
ignored the viceroy and other authorities in Mexico; address- 
ing himself directly to the king, through the medium of his 
son-in-law, Don Pedro Gonzales de Mendoza. In this second 
effort Espejo failed. 

Bonilla and Barbadillo, in accordance with previous arran- 
gement and agreement with Espejo, were waiting in Madrid 
for Gonzales de Mendoza; who carried with him, for the King, 
a copy of Espejo's narrative. Espejo offered to take four 
hundred men with their wives and families, and in addition, 
four companies of soldiers and all the military stores and 
ammunitions of war, horses, live stock of cattle and sheep and 
•everything else needed for undertaking the colonization on a 
large scale in all of which he promised to spend the sum of 
one hundred thousand ducats; and, that the new colonies 
should not be lacking in spiritual help, offered also to take 
twenty four Franciscan Fathers. In return for his sacrifices 
and large expenses he asked for himself the appointment of 
Captain General and Governor with privileges equal to the 
ones granted to the Viceroy of Mexico. The petition of 
Espejo, together with that of Don Cristobal Martin, were 
referred by the King to Don Francisco Diaz de Vargas 
^historiographer and relative of the conqueror of the same 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. ISO" 

name) who at that time was alcalde of the City of Puebla^ 
that he might make a minute and conscientious investigation 
into what Espejo, Don Martin and the others solicited. Don 
Francisco Diaz de Vargas, basing his opinion upon the 
failure of the expeditions of Fr. de la Asuncion, Fr. Marcos 
de Niza, Fr. Francisco Rodriguez (Ruiz) and Coronado's, did 
not hesitate in giving his decision unfavorable to the petitions 
of Espejo and the others. 

The report of De Vargas had the effect of causing said 
petitions to be all ignored, but, not on that account, were the 
other rich and prominent men in civic and military affairs,^ 
discouraged. In the province of New Galicia lived Don Juan 
Bautista de Lomas y Colmenares who in the year 1589 
presented his petition to the Viceroy Villamanique asking 
authority for the conquest of New Mexico, he offering also to 
defray all the expenses on his own account. This petition 
was approved by the Viceroy, but rejected by the King. De 
Lomas did not abandon the hope of realizing his wishes 
and so in 1592, Velasco being Viceroy of Mexico, he again 
presented a new petition, but without obtaining results, 
because Velasco had already [promised that privilege to 
Francisco de Urdinola whom he afterwards appointed to 
undertake the conquest of New Mexico. Urdinola, however, 
was not able to undertake the conquest because he was 
arrested to answer to the charge of having killed his wife. 
When Don Juan Bautista de Lomas saw the failure of Urdi- 
nola he made in 1595, another petition with the same object, 
Monterey being then Viceroy of Mexico, but he again was 
doomed to a similar disappointment. 

Castano de Sosa Steps In and Gives the Pueblo Indians the Formal 
Government Which They Have to This Day. 

Don Gaspar Castano de Sosa was a man of great prestige, 
and Mayor of the City of San Luis Potosi. Intrepid, and 
arrogant, and believing himself a man of great prominence 
he determined to undertake the conquest and colonization of 
New Mexico. He assembled, in men, women and children, 
one hundred and seventy persons and started on July 27, 1590, 
from Nuevo Leon carrying along wagons, horses, mules^ 



190 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

cattle, sheep, and all necessary things for the foundation 
of colonies. 

Part of his route was through the Rio Grande, and part 
along the Rio de Pecos to which he gave the name of "Rio 
Salado,'" (Salt River). Castano visited all the pueblos of New 
Mexico and was kindly received by the Indians, except in one 
of them where he had to employ force in order to penetrate 
into it. Castano, although without any authority from the 
king, adopted a better policy than his predecessors, for it was 
he who for the first time, gave the pueblos a definite form of 
government appointing, in the greater part of them, a gover- 
nor and other officials. The government which Castano gave 
the Indians at that time was subsequently recognized by the 
governments of Spain and Mexico, and, even in our own days, 
and under the United States government, the same system 
of government is still in force in all the pueblos, Castafio was 
about to return to New Spain when he was met in the Pueblo 
of San Domingo by Capt. Juan Morete, who was coming with 
an escort of fifty men, sent by the viceroy, to arrest Castano. 
Castano did not resist the authority, but surrendered at dis- 
cretion, and with his men was taken back to Mexico, ending 
thus with his voyage to New Mexico. 

De Lomas — Coming of Humana and Bonilia — Arrest of Gastaiio de 
Sosa Related by Villagra. 

Concerning the expedition made by Juan de Humana and 
Francisco Leyba Bonilia (Bonilia was a Portuguese) to New 
Mexico, little or nothing is known, having been undertaken 
without any authority, there is no authentic history about it 
outside what Villagra tells us, who, while accompanying 
Oiiate, as we shall see, met an Indian called Jusepe, at the 
Pueblo of San Juan, and from him Villagrd learned that 
Hamaiia, Bonilia and the Indian Jusepe in their company had 
penetrated as faras the Great Qui vira returning thence laden 
with gold, and that, while they were returning, Humana had 
murdered Bonilia; that, subsequently, the Spaniards, who 
had remained with Humana, were surprised by the Indians 
and all had been killed — he alone (Jusepe) having been able 
to escape from the massacre. 

The tragical outcome of the efforts of De Lomas and the 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OP NEW MEXICO. 191 

arrest of Castaiip is given to us by Villagra in one of the 
cantos of his epic poem in these words: 

"The viceroy ordered that the voyage should 

Be reg'istered without delay; Juan 

Bautista Lomas undertook at once 

The task. A man of wealth, tho' old in years, 

Was he, with highest credit o'er the land. 

He laid his plan before the viceroy but 

Without effect. Towards the closing- of 

The year eighty-nine and middle of 

Ninety Castano entered: for he was 

Lieutenant oldest of the king-dom of 

Leon, followed by a valiant multitude 

Of nobles whose intrepid chief of camp 

Was called Cristobal Heredia, well 

Versed in the affairs of war and also with 

Discretion to explore deserted lands. 

The viceroy ordered all of them, by Capt. 

Morete apprehended: Who, without 

Delay, and helped by fearless soldiery, 

Well fit by exercise to do the work. 

Caused their arrest, and set them in their post." * 

* Villagra's "Historia de la Nueva Mexico." 




Captain Gaspar de Villagril, co-conqueror of Onate, 1598, and first historian of 
New Mexico. His "Historia de la Nueva Mexico" was published in Spain in the 
year 1010. 



BOOK 11. 

EPOCH OF THE FIRST CONQUEST, PACIFICATION AND 
CMraSTIANIZATION OF THE INDIGENES, BY DON 
JUAN DE ONATE, 1595-1608. 



CHAPTER I. 

Epoch of the Entry ol Onate — The Conquest is Effected — Christianiza- 
tion and Pacification of the Indians of New Mexico. 

Upon a careful reading of the works of the old authors, 
which the author of this work has been able to read, he has 
reached the conviction that many of them do not agree as to 
the date of Onate's departure, the majority of them giving it 
at the year 1595. There is no doubt that all of them have con- 
founded the dates in which Onate commenced to make his peti- 
tions and preparations, and from that error many others have 
flowed in regard to Onate's voyage. Villagra was the most 
distinguished of Oilate's captains, and the historian of this 
important expedition. Taking, then, into consideration the 
fact that the Spanish authors themselves are so confused in 
the matter of dates so memorable, there is no reason why we 
should censure the writers of other nations who have had to 
depend on translators who never, perhaps, took the pains of 
comparing the works from which they were translating with 
the original writings. 

All the authors, who have written on the history of New Mex- 
ico, with the exception of Bancroft, are in error as to the date 
on which Onate undertook his voyage of conquest. Fr. Frejes 
(see appendix No. 2) says it was in 1595; Shea and Salpointe 
tix it at 1596; Prince, Davis and the rest affirm that it was in 
1591. It seems certain that none of them ever had the oppoi- 
tunity of consulting Villagra, hence the error referred to. 
Pino and Barriero do not mention Cabeza de Vaca, Fr. 
Marcos de Niza, and Coronado. Pino affirms that the expul- 
sion of Otermin happened in 1644, 36 years before the time 
it actually took place. In like manner, Pino and Barriero 



DE LA N VEVA' 

mexico,delcApttaM 

CASPAR DE YJI-LAGRA. 



Ano 




rr^io* 



CO'i PR ! V u.EGTo: 
Hh Ales! , fiff t-*j V MdrtifK'K^^? ■' 



Fac-siiuUk' of the title page of the llrst liistory of New Mexico, written ))y 
•Captain Gaspar de Villagrd, one*of Onate's most distinguished captains in the 
<!onquest of New Mexico, lotis. Publislied in Spain in lUKt. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 195 

affirm that Onate made his voyage in 1595. We shall speak 
of these two authors in another part of this work. 

Bancroft is the tirst of the English speaking writers who 
discovered the error in 1877, date in which he found the 
work of Villagrd. Villagra wrote his work entitled "History 
of New Mexico" a few years after the pacification of New 
Mexico (in 1610,) and, as he was one of the conquerors him- 
self, it follows that the account given by him is both authen- 
tic and acurrate. The Author of this work, notwithstanding 
the fact, that the Historical Society of New Mexico has a 
copy of Villagra s History, obtained the book through the 
agency of Mr. Camilo Padilla, of El Paso, Texas, who found 
the volume in Old Mexico. It is thus that this author can 
furnish the reader with the very source of one of the most 
important historical events of our soil. By this means, the 
radical change which, this work of Villagra, makes in all the 
works written before Bancroft's, can be better appreciated. 
— A reason, too, why the author has deemed it opportune to 
say something respecting the efforts made in Mexico to find 
so precious a work. 

Don Francisco del Paso y Troncoso, director of the National 
Museum in Mexico in 1899 or 1900, upon learning that a copy 
of the "History of New Mexico" by Villagra was on the hands 
of a man in Madrid, Spain, called Manuel Gomez Velasco, 
made a trip to Madrid, with the sole object of obtaining the 
work in order to reprint it in Mexico. He had no difficulty in 
getting it, as he himself tells us in his "introduction" to the 
new edition. He brought it to Mexico and reprinted it on the 
printing press of the National Museum the same year of 1900. 

How rare that work was up to that date, Mr. Troncoso 
states in his introduction in the following words; "The book 
of Villagra is actually very rare, it was published tor the first 
time at Alcala de Henares (Spain) in the year 1610, (eleven 
years after the conquest of New Mexico by Onate) in an 
Bvo volume, of 24 preliminary leaves not numbered, and the 
text folded into pages from 1 to 287. The copies of this first 
edition preserved in the public and private libraries are few, 
and here, in Mexico, there are extant only three or four 
copies.'" 

There is no reason, then, to criticize the historians who 



196 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

wrote anterior to, or contemporaneously, withTorquemada, or 
Torquemada himself; or even those who wrote after him, 
much less, those of other nations, for none of them had seen 
the work of Villagrd. That is how the historical errors came 
to be transmitted till the year 1900, when the National 
Museum of Mexico issued the second edition of Villagra. 

To the work of Villagra four appendices have been added, 
the first, by Don Jose Fernando Ramirez in which all the 
"Documents, in reference to Villagra,"' were published. The 
second appendix is that of Father Alonzo de Benavides, and 
it treats of "The Spiritual and Temporal Treasures which 
redounded in the benefit of the Indians of New Mexico through 
the services of the Franciscan Fathers." This appendix was 
read to the king in 1630, and the Author considers it of such 
importance, especially because of its having been ignored by 
the other writers, that he has reproduced it in full, as the 
first appendix of this work. 

The third appendix is from the pen of the Presbyter, Don 
Agustin Fischer, and treats, among other important things, 
of the uprising of New Mexico in 1643, and the expulsion of 
Otermin and the rest of the Spaniards (reproducing Otei'- 
min's narrative itself) in 1680. 

The fourth appendix, written by the Count Don Carlos de 
Sigiienza y Gongora in 1693, under the title of "Mercurio 
Volante," treats of the restoration of the provinces of New 
Mexico accomplished by Diego de Vargas, Zapata y Lujan, 
Ponce de Leon, governor and captain general of that king- 
dom. Siguenza also reproduces the narrative of De Vargas 
himself, a thing the Author of this work has emulated in 
another chapter, with the sole object of giving to the world 
the true history of the greatest of conquerors of New Mexico. 
We shall now begin our narrative of the voyage. 

Entry of Onate— 1598. 

The conqueror, Don Juan de Onate, was not a full-blooded 
Spaniard, but a direct descendant from Hernan Cortes, and 
from Emperor Montezuma. His father, Don Cristobal de 
Onate, was one of the most famed captains of Cortes, in 
the conquest of the rich and powerful Mexican empire, and 
the founder of the City of Zacatecas. His mother Dona Isabel 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 197 

Tolosa,wasa g rand daughter of Cortes and great grand-daugh- 
ter of Montezuma. Our hero, then, Don .Juan deOnate, was 
related to the "Great Men"' of Mexico and Spain, and was 
consequently a man of much importance and great prestige 
in governmental affairs. 

The narratives of Cabeza de Vaca, Niza, Coronado and 
Espejo had imbued Dun Juan with the idea that to him Pro- 
vidence had reserved the honor of the discovery, pacification 
and christianization of the provinces of New Mexico. He 
concluded, therefore, to undertake the big enterprise relying 
not only on the well established prestige of his parents and 
grandparents, but also on the brilliant military career which 
he had made himself, and above all, on the great fortune he 
had at his command for the realization of his ideal. He, 
therefore, presented to Viceroy Velasco on September 25th, 
A. D. 1595, his petition, or solicitation, soliciting the favor he 
had so much yearned for, obliging himself to bear all the 
necessary expenses, both of men and troops, as well as of 
war materials, food provisions, wagons, colonists with their 
families, and, in short, Vv'hatever might be necessary for 
effecting the colonization of New Mexico. In return and, as 
reward for his services and expenses, he asked to be appointed 
governor and captain general of all the lands he might be 
able to colonize; he asked, further, for a land grant of thirty 
leagues (nearly ninety miles), and a salary of 8,000 ducats a 
year; that he and his descendants should be declared "hijos 
dalgos,"' (nobles) and that he should be allowed to carry along 
as many as six priests well equipped. For the maintenance 
of the soldiers, however, he requested a loan of §20,000.00 
from the royal coffers. Velasco approved Onate's petition 
granting him everything he asked, and the "capitulations"' 
(contract) was signed on the 24th of August of the same 
year (1595). 

Having signed the contract, Oilate began the work of pro- 
curing the means which the enterprise required, and, with 
the aid of his powerful relatives and friends, he was able, in 
a very short time, to gather at Santa Barbara a number of 
adventurers who were anxious to win fame. In the formation 
of the army, Onate was encouraged, helped and sustained by 
his brothers, Fernando, Cristobal, Alonzo and Luis, and by 



198 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

the four Zaldivar brothers (who were Onate"s nephews), sons 
of Juan Zaldivar, who had been a captain of Coronado. The 
names of the Zaldivars were Cristobal, Francisco, Juan and 
Vicente; Vicente was appointed sergeant.in-chief, and, as 
such, commenced to enlist men in the City of Mexico, imme- 
diately after the papers had been signed, being thus able, 
without much difficulty, to enlist the 200 men which Onate 
had promised. 

While this was going on in Onate's camp, in the month of 
November, a change of viceroys occurred. The Count of 
Monterey arrived from Spain as successor to Velasco. With 
the change of viceroys, the OfLates and their supporters lost 
their prestige, because the new viceroy had, as is always the 
case with all public men, his particular friends and advisors. 
These began at once to file complaints against Oiiate, de- 
manding his suspension, and the appointment in his place of 
Don Pedro Ponce de Leon. The new viceroy reported to the 
King all that was going on, asking at the same time for 
authority to suspend Onate pending the necessary investiga- 
tions which were to be made. The King granted the petition 
of the viceroy, forwarding at once his royal order to that 
effect. 

Ofiate, unconscious of what was being done, continued 
making his arrangements for the voyage. His preparations 
being now concluded, and just as he was getting ready to 
undertake the voyage, a courier arrived from Mexico, bring- 
ing the royal order instructing the viceroy not to allow Oiiate 
to prosecute his entry into New Mexico. The King based 
his decision on the information secretly made to him by the 
viceroy, as will be seen in the following order of the King and 
the command of the viceroy: 

The King- 

"Count of Monterey, my Viceroy, Governor and Captain 
General of New Spain, or to the person or persons in whose 
charge is the government of the same: Having seen the letter 
you wrote to me on December the 20th of last year, in which 
you speak of the agreement which the viceroy, Don Luis 
Velasco, your predecessor, had made with Don Juan de Oiiate, 
touching the discovery of New Mexico, and the causes, which 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 199 

you say, held you back in what was resolved, remarking that 
it was not convenient to approve the agreement, if recourse 
was had here on the part of said Don Juan de Oiiate until you 
should again write to me: and consulting, through my Royal 
Council of the Indies, on my subject Don Pedro Ponce de 
Leon, who is said to be from the Villa of Baelen, having offered 
to make said discovery, I have determined that the execution 
of what was capitulated with the said Don Juan de Oiiate, be 
suspended. And I, therefore, command you not to permit 
the entry to be made by him nor to prosecute it, if he should 
have commenced it, but let him hold back until I shall provide 
and command what may seem convenient to me, about which 
you shall have prompt notice. Dated at Azeca, May 8th, in 
the year one thousand five hundred and ninety-six. I, the 
King, by command of the King, our lord, Juan Ybarra." 

Command of the Viceroy, the Count of Monte Rey. 

"Don Gaspar de Zuniga y Azevedo, Count of Monte Rey, 
Lord of the houses and estate of Biedina y Ulloa, Viceroy, 
Lieutenant, and Captain General of His Majesty, in this New 
Spain, and President of the Royal Audience and Chancery 
that therein resides: To you, Don Lope de Ulloa, Captain of 
my guard, to whom I entrusted the inspection concerning 
our investigation of the fulfilment of the agreement that Don 
Juan de Oiiate is taking in regard to the journey of discovery, 
pacification and conversion of the provinces of New Mexico — 
with the appointment of my lieutenant in order to prevent, 
obviate, and chastise the disorders and excesses that may be 
committed by the men on said journey! Know ye, that by 
command of the King, our lord, to me addressed, and given 
at Azeca on May 8th, 1596, I am commanded and ordered not 
to permit that the said Don Juan de Oiiate make the entry of 
said New Mexico, nor prosecute it if he has commenced it, 
but to hold back until His Majesty provides and commands 
what may seem convenient, and that about this matter, he 
shall send me prompt notice; wherefore, in the meanwhile, 
His Majesty has determined to suspend the execution of 
what has been capitulated with the said Don Juan de Oiiate, 
according, as it all appears in the original Royal order, which 
I enclose herewith with this my command. And as it is fit 



200 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

that what His Majesty orders be made evident to the said 
Don Juan de Onate so he may keep it and comply with it we 
command you to notify, and caused to notif}^ said Don Juan 
de Onate about the said original Royal Order as well as this 
my order and command so he may keep it and comply with 
it as contained therein. For which purpose, in the name of 
His Majesty and mine, as Viceroy, and his lieutenant and 
supreme captain general of this New Spain and of the pro- 
vinces and journey of New Mexico; I command the said Don 
Juan de Onate, that by keeping it and complying with, as 
soon as this my command is notified and cause to notify to 
him by you, to halt, and not to advance any further from the 
point and place where he may be notified, nor consent, that 
the men he has mustered may pass, nor the provisions, ammu- 
nition, baggage, nor anything else, nor to prosecute said 
journey, but rather desist from it, and hold back until there 
be a new order from his Majesty and in his Royal name; and 
in his failure of not complying, in case he should advance 
forward against what is provided for in said Royal Order and 
by me commanded in this my command, if it be not with 
your express permission, by writing, in order the better to 
hold back said men, I, therefore, in the said Royal Name, 
revoke and annul the titles, patents, contracts, provisions, 
commissions and all other agreements that have been made 
in the name of His Majesty with and to said Don Juan de 
Onate, and to the captains and officers he appointed for said 
journey, or to carry the effect of it, so that in no manner may 
they use, nor be able to use them, with the understanding 
that, by doing the contrary, nothing will be complied with 
which has been granted in his favor, in the said agreement 
and capitulations: and that it will be proceeded against their 
persons and effects, as transgressors of the orders and com- 
mands of their King and natural lord, and as is done against 
rebellious and disloyal vassals, usurpers of the rights of 
discovery, entry and conquest of provinces belonging to His 
Majesty; and that the processes that by reason of this 
disobedience, rebelliousness, and most grave offences may 
have to be made I do from now on call, summon, and cite them 
to appear, within sixty days after the notification of this 
command, personall}^ in this city of Mexico at the houses 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 201 

wherein is my residence, before my person and that of the 
judges that I shall appoint to hear such cases, where by 
appearing they will be heard and justice shall be done to 
them; and that by not appearing and in their absence and on 
account of their rebelliouness a process shall be formed, 
against them and the processes shall be notified to them in 
chambers and they shall be assessed in damages, as if they 
had been notified in their own persons. All of which I send 
as it is, not only to the said Don Juan, but to the captains 
and officials of said corps, who are engaged for the said 
journey; and, then, if it should appear to you, that it should 
come to the notice, of the other soldiers and men, you shall 
cause a public proclamation to be published declaring to all 
the said officers, soldiers and persons that in any way may 
be going to the journey that, under penalty of death and the 
loss of their property, and of being held and considered as 
rebellious and disloyal vassals of his Majesty, not to advance 
further in their voyage; and, in right thereof let them neither 
hear nor obey said Don Juan. And so I provide, and I com- 
mand that this my command go countersigned by Juan 
Martinez de Guilleftigui, my secretary, and that he give as 
much testimony as if despatched by the goverment; where- 
fore, in virtue of the particular Royal Order, which I hold, to 
act in cases I may deem proper, with my secretaries, I 
command with all due regards that my said secretary counter- 
sign it. Done in Mexico on August 12th, 1596. The Count 
of Monte Rey. By command of his Lordship, Juan Martinez 
de Guilleftigui. 

The sadness that took possession of Oiiate's soul is thus 
depicted to us by Villagrd in the following verse: 

"This sad and miserable life, my lord, 
Feeds only an illusive, paltry hopes 
Whose meagre substance lias hardly reached 
Our doors when lol it sinks and vanishes 
In unexpected suddenness." 

The bad news did not discourage Ofiate who, in order to 
l^eep unaltered the enthusiasm in his soldiers, acquainted 
neither the colonists nor the troops with the contents of the 
order, but rather to!d them that they were orders to the 



202 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

effect that he should not delay longer his departure. Onate 
appeared frequently before his soldiers and colonists advis- 
ing them not be dismayed, and assuring them that the day 
of the departure was not far off. He was thus able to calm 
the spirits of some of the displeased ones, who already were 
murmuring, among them being some of the priests, many of 
whom at last decided to abandon Onate. 

Onate lost no time in making satisfactory reply to the 
charges of his enemies, who, headed by Ponce de Leon, em- 
ployed every sort of trickery in order to effect the ruin of 
Onate and his friends. The friends of Onate did not forsake 
him in his moments of anguish; all fought, with equal bold- 
ness, the foes of Onate, being able, after a bitter struggle of 
almost three years, to overcome Ponce de Leon and his 
partisans. The victory being achieved, nothing was want- 
ing, except that the formal inspection, ex-ofticio, which was 
to be made as to the precise condition of the army and the 
means of Onate to comply with his promises. The inspection 
was made by the inspector, Don Juan Frias Salazar, during- 
the months of December 1597 and January 1598, and as he 
found everything in perfect condition, and in strict confor- 
mity with the legal requirements, he did not hesitate to give 
a favorable report, thus enabling Onate to undertake his- 
voyage. 

Onate and his People Start. 

On the 26th day of January 1598, the caravan, which wa* 
to mark our history with its most memorable epoch, 
started out on its vo.vage. They started from Santa Bar- 
bara (San Bartolome) numbering altogether, 400 souls of 
which 130 were colonists who came accompanied by their 
families. In addition to his sheep, Onate brought 7000 head of 
cattle and 83 wagons. On the seventh day of February they 
reached Rio Conchos. Thence he continued his march, but 
not along the river, and were lost in the desert, and suffered 
a great deal because of the scarcity of water. During the long 
and painful journey they made before reaching the Rio Grande 
all suffered and went four days without drinking a drop of 
water. When despair had already taken possession of their 
souls, believing themselves on the verge of perishing from 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 203 

thirst, together with all the stock, they reached the Kia 
Grande, many soldiers and many horses dying and drown- 
ing through overdraughts of water. Let us hear Villagi a 
relate what he saw and witnessed immediately after they 
had arrived at the river. Villagrd speaks: 

"The horses g-aunt approached the rolling- stream. 

And with great speed into the waters plung-ed 

Headlong-: and two of them so much did drink 

That, bvirsting-, side by side tog-ether died. 

Two others blinded by their raving- thirst 

Into the powerful river pushed so deep 

That, carried by the current, perished, drowned. 

And. as when in a public tavern some 

Foul wretches stretched themselves across the floor 

Intoxicated by the wine they drink, 

So our companions lay hidropic and 

Deformed, and swollen on the humid sand. 

As if they were unsig-htly toads, not men— 

The river not appearing- big- enoug-h 

To them for quenching their devouring- thirst." 

On the 30th day of April, 1598, Oiiate took on the banks of 
the Rio Grande formal and solemn possession of New Mex- 
ico in the following form: 

"In the name of the Most Holy Trinity, and the undivided 
Eternal Unity, Deity and Majesty, Father, Son and Holy 
Ghost, three persons in one sole essence, and one and only 
true God that with his eternal will. Almighty Power and 
Intinite Wisdom, directs, governs and disposes potently and 
sweetly from sea to sea, from end to end, as beginning and 
end of all things, and in whose hands the Eternal Pontificate 
and Priesthood, the Empires and Kingdoms, Principalities, 
Dynasties, Republics, elders and minors, families and per- 
sons, as in an Eternal Priest, Emperor and King of Emper- 
ors and Kings, Lord of lords. Creator of the heavens and 
the earth, elements, birds and fishes, animals and plants and 
of all creatures corporal and spiritual, rational and 
irrational, from the most supreme cherubim to the most 
despised ant and tiny butterfly; and to his honor and glory 
and of his most sacred and blessed mother, the Holy Virgin 
Mary, our Lady, gate of heaven, ark of the covenant in 
whom the manna of heaven, the rod of divine justice, and arm 



■204 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO, 

of God and his law of grace and love was placed, as Mother 
of God, Sun, Moon, North Star, guide and advocate of human- 
ity; and in honor of the Seraphic Father, San Francisco, 
image of Christ, God in body and soul, His Royal Ensign, 
patriarch of the poor, whom I adopt as my patrons and advo- 
cates, guides, defenders and intercessors, that they pray to 
the same God in order that all my thoughts, words and 
actions be directed to the service of his Intinite Majesty, the 
increase of the faithful and expansion of his holy church, and 
obedience to the most Christian King, Don Felipe, our lord, 
strong column of the Catholic faith, may God preserve for 
many years; and the crown of Castile, and the enlargement 
of his kingdoms and provinces: I wish that those that are 
now, or at any time may be, know that I, Don Juan de Onate, 
governor and captain general, and Adelantado of New Mex- 
ico, and of its kingdoms and provinces, as well as of those in 
their vicinity and contiguous thereto, as settler, discoverer 
and pacifier of them and of the said kingdoms, by the order 
of the King, our lord. I say that whereas by virtue of my 
appointment and titles that his majesty gives me, therefore, 
as such governor, captain general and Adelantado of said 
kingdoms and provinces, he promises me, in virtue of his 
Royal ordnances and Royal orders and two other sub-orders 
and chapters of letters of the King, our lord; dated at 
Valencia, January 26th, in the year 1586; dated at San 
Lorenzo on the 19th of June, in the year 1589; dated the l^th 
of January, 1593; dated the 21st of July, 1595; and by another 
last Royal order, dated the 2nd of April of this past j^ear 
1597, in which in spite of the contradiction of other parties, 
His Majesty approves my election so made, continuing my 
said office, and now I come in demand of said kingdoms and 
provinces, with chief officers, captains, ensigns, soldiers, and 
the people at peace and at war to people and pacify them; 
and with a great quantity of war materials, w'agons, carts, 
cattle, horses, oxen, sheep and other stock, and as many of 
my people are married, I Ond myself today with my full 
and entire camp, and with more people than what I drew out 
of the Province of Santa Barbara, near the river which they 
call Del Norte, and on the bank which is contiguous to the 
first towns of New Mexico, which said river runs through 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 205 

them, having made and opened a road for carts, broad and 
plain, that others without difficulty may go and come over it, 
and having travelled on foot one hundred leagues of 
unpeopled country; and whereas I wish to take possession 
of the land today, the day of the Ascension of our Lord, 
dated April 30th, of the present year 1598; through the 
medium of the person of Don Juan Perez de Douis, clerk of 
his Majesty, and secretary of this expedition and the gov- 
ernment of said kingdoms and provinces, by word and in the 
name of the most Christian king, Don Felipe, Segundo, 
(second) of that name, and for his successors, (may they be 
many) and with the utmost happiness, and for the crown of 
Castile and kings that from his glorious descent may reign 
therein, and by, and for, my said government, relying and 
resting in the only and absolute power and jurisdiction which 
the Eternal High Priest, and King, Jesus Christ, son of the 
living God, universal head of the Church, first and only insti- 
tutor of her sacraments, base and corner stone of the old 
and new testaments, and its foundation and perfection; who 
has power in heaven and on earth, not only as God and 
consubstantial with his eternal father, but as Creator of all 
things, who is the only, absolute and natural proprietor — 
lord of all; that as such can do and must do, order and dis- 
pose at His holy will, and whatever he may hold as good; 
but also as man, to whom his eternal Father, as to such, 
and being the son of man and through his painful and sor- 
rowful death, and triumphant and glorious resurrection and 
ascension, and the especial title of universal Redemptor, 
that he won thereby, gave entire faculty, jurisdiction and 
dominion, civil and criminal, high and low, minor, above and 
below, his empire in the Kingdom of Heaven, and over the 
reigns of the earth, and in whose hands he placed the weight 
and measure, the judgment, rewards and punishment for the 
universe, making him not only King and Judge, but also uni- 
versal pastor of the faithful and infidels; of those who today 
believe in his voice and follow him and are within his fold, 
the Christian people, and of those who have not heard his 
voice and evangelical word, nor do know him now, and whom, 
he says, it behooves him to bring to his divine knowledge, 
because they are his, and he is their legitimate and universal 



206 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

m 

pastor, for which purpose, having ascended to his Eternal 
Father, in his corporal being, he had to leave, and left, as 
his Vicar and substitute, the prince of the Apostles, St. 
Peter, and his successors legitimately elected to whom he 
gave and left the Kingdom, power and Empire, and the keys 
of heaven, just as the same Christ — God received them from 
his Eternal Father, as his head and universal lord, and to 
the others, as his successors, servants, ministers and vicars, 
and so he not only left the ecclesiastical jurisdiction and 
spiritual monarchy, but bestowed upon them, also, tem- 
poral jurisdiction over the monarchy in the one and the other 
branch, and twofold authority that by themselves, or, by 
means of their children, the Emperors and Kings, when 
■and how they deemed it proper, for urgent cause they 
might enlarge the aforesaid temporal jurisdiction and 
erapow'er monarchy to act and put its mandates into execu- 
tion, so soon as the occasion and necessity should require it, 
this they executed using the entire temporal power, of the 
secular arm and faculty, as much by themselves, as by 
armadas and armies by sea and land, in their own lands, 
and in the lands of the different barbarous nations, with 
the colors, flags and the Imperial Standard of the Cross, 
subjecting the barbarous nations, paving the way for 
evangelical preachers, insuring their lives and persons, 
avenging the injuries received bv those who have al- 
ready been received into the fold, and refraining the 
impetuous, and bestial, barbarous fierceness of the above 
mentioned barbarians; and in the name of the Mighty Christ 
■God who commanded that his gospel be preached to all the 
world, thus, by his authority extending the boundaries of 
Christianity, and expanding his empire by the aid of his above 
mentioned children, the emperors and kings, among whom 
the King, Don Felipe, our lord, king of Castile and of Portu- 
gal, of the West and East Indies, discovered and to be 
discovered, by the medium of the aforesaid power, jurisdic- 
tion and monarchy, apostolical and pontifical, transfused, 
granted and sanctioned, recommended and entrusted to the 
kings of Castile and Portugal and to their successors since 
the time of the Sovereign Pontiff Alexander VI, by divine 
and singular inspiration, as well as by Christian piety teaches 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 207 

it to be infallibly so, for God never deserts his vicar, who 
represents his person in grave things and imparts to him 
experience as the true teacher of the truth as time has show^n; 
a thing v^'hich testifies with infallible certainty, to the con- 
sent, permission and confirmation of the aforesaid empire 
and dominion of the East and West Indies, in and to the 
kings of Castile and Portugal and to their successors, trans- 
ferred and lodged upon them by the church militant, and by 
the other sovereign pontiffs, successors, of the said most holy 
pontiff of glorious memory, Alexander VI, to the present day 
on which solid basis I rest to take the aforesaid possession of 
these kingdom and provinces, in the aforesaid name; to which 
are fixed, as the foundation and pillars of this edifice many 
other grave and urgent causes and reasons that move and 
compel me to it and give me sure entry, and with God's help 
and that of his blessed mother's and the standard of the holy 
cross, through the medium of the evangelical preachers, 
childrenof my seraphic Father SanFrancisco I will give surer, 
more prosperous and happier success; and the first and not 
least consideration for the present case is the death of the 
preachersof the holy gospel, true sons of San Francisco, Fray 
Juan de Santa Maria, Fray Francisco Lopez andFray Agustin 
Ruiz, first disco verersof this land, after that great Father Fray 
Marcos de Niza, for all gave their lives and blood as the first 
fruits of the holy gospel in this land, these martyrs suffer- 
ing a martyrdom death which they did not deserve, for being 
once well received by these Indians and admitted into their 
pueblos and homes, the said religious men remaining alone 
among them to preach to them the word of God, and the 
better to understand their language, confided in the security 
inspired by the good treatment which they gave to them, and 
having on all occasions done good to these natives during all 
the time that the few Spaniards, who were with them, being 
only eight, stayed, as well as after the departure of the said 
soldiers, they (the Indians) returned, against the natural law, 
€vil for good, and inflicted death on men who were innocent 
like them, who did them no harm, and who gave them, then 
what they could, and tried to give them the life by means of 
the law of grace, more advantageously; this being sufficient 
cause and reason, if there should be no other, to justify my 



208 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OP NEW MEXICO. 

pretensions, besides which, the correction, and punishment 
of the sins against nature, and the inhumanity that ex- 
ists among these bestial nations and which it beiiooves my 
king and prince, as so powerful a lord to correct and repress, 
and to me, in his royal name, in the present case; and, with- 
out these, the pious reason, my Christian opinion of baptism, 
and the salvation of the souls of so many children as live and 
are born at present among these infidel parents, who do not 
recognize nor obey their true God and most principal Father, 
and cannot, morally speaking, recognize him if it is not 
through this means, as the experience in all these lands has 
demonstrated; and even when they could recognize him, by 
the sacrament of baptism, they cannot preserve the faith, nor 
persevere in his vocation among idolatrous and infidel people, 
against whom this work must be done, because it is the will 
of God, that all be saved, and that to all may come to the sound 
and effect of his word and passion, and God must be obeyed, 
and not men, although they be judges, or fathers, or if they 
have kingdoms and cities, for a single soul is more pre- 
cious than all the world, and its dominions, riches and prop- 
erties; without these, there ai'e other causes on which I lean 
to effect my purpose, as well as the temporal good (for the 
spiritual good is priceless), which these barbarous nations 
may acquire with our commerce and trade, and what they 
may gain in their political trade and the government of their 
cities, living like reasonable beings, in policy and understand- 
ing, augmenting their occupations and mechanical arts, and 
increasing in new live stock, breeds; and seeds, vegetables 
and provisions, clothing and fruits, and selling discreetly and 
learn the economical treatment of their families, houses and 
persons, clothing the naked, and those who are already 
clothed, improving their raiment; and, finally leaving out 
other things, to be governed in peace and justice, secured in 
their homes and highways and defended and protected from 
their enemies by the hand and the expense of so powerful a 
king, the submission to whom is real progress and liberty, 
and of having in him their own father, who, at his cost, and 
by means of his resources, and concessions of lands so 
remote, may send them preachers and ministers, justice and 
protection with the instructions of a true Father of peace. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 209 

concord, security and love, all of which I shall fulfill even to 
the loss of life; and I command and will always command the 
same to be fulfilled under penalty. And, therefore, resting 
on the solid basis aforesaid I take the aforesaid possession, 
in the presence of the most Reverend Father Pray Alonzo 
Martinez of the order of our lord Saint Francis, Apostolic 
Commissary, cum plenitudine potestafis, of this journey of New 
Mexico and its provinces; and of the most reverend fathers 
of the holy gospel, his companions, Fray Francisco de San 
Miguel, Fray Francisco de Zamora, Fray Juan de Rosas, 
Fray Alonzo de Lugo, Fray Andres Corchado, Fray Juan 
Claros and Fray Cristobal de Salazar, and my beloved 
fathers and brothers Fray Juan de San Buenaventura, 
Fray Pedro de Vergara; lay friars and religious who go 
on this journey and conversion; and of my Aide de 
Camp, General Juan de Zaldivar Oiiate and of the 
officers of my staff, and of the greater part of the Captains 
and officers of the camp, and persons of peace and war of it; 
I say, that by voice and in the name of the most Christian 
King, Don Felipe, our lord, the defender and protector of 
our holy Mother, the Church, and his true son and for the 
crown of Castile and kings that from his glorious progeny 
reigned therein and by and for my said government, I take 
and apprehend once, twice and three times and all that I can 
and must by right the Royal holding and possession actual, 
civil and criminal, in this said Rio del Norte, without exempt- 
ing anything and without any limitation, with the meadows, 
dales, and their pasture grounds, and passes. And this said 
possession I take and apprehend, in voice and name, of the 
other lands, Pueblos, Cities, and Villas, solid and plane 
houses that are now founded in the said Kingdoms and Pro- 
vinces of New Mexico, and those that are neighbors and 
contiguous to it, and which were founded before in them, 
with the mountains, rivers, river banks, waters, pastures, 
meadows, dales, passes, and all its native Indians as are 
included and comprised in them, and the civil and criminal 
jurisdiction high and low, upper and lower empire from the 
edge of the mountains to the stone in the river and its sands, 
and from the stone and sands in the river to the leaf of the 
mountains. And I, Juan Perez de Donis, clerk of his Majesty 



210 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

and post secretary, do certify and give faith that the said 
lord Governor, Captain General and Adelantado of the said 
Kingdoms, as a sign of true and peaceful possession, and 
continuing the acts thereof placed and nailed with his own 
hands on a certain tree, which was prepared for that purpose, 
the Hol}^ Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, and turning to it, 
with his knees on the ground, said: 

"Holy Cross, divine gate of heaven, altar of the only and 
essential sacrifice of the Body and Blood of the Son of God, 
way of the Saints, and possession of their glory; open the 
gate of heaven to these infidels; found the Church and Altars 
where the Body and Blood of the Son of God may be offered; 
open to us a way of safety and peace for their conversion 
and our conversion, and give to our King, and to me, in his 
Royal name, peaceful possessionof these Reigns and Prov- 
inces for his holy glory. Amen. 

"And immediately, incontinenti, he fixed and set in the 
same manner with his own hands in the Royal Standard the 
Coat of Arms of the most Christian King, Don Felipe, our 
lord, on one side the Imperial Arms, and on another part, 
the Royals; and at the lime this was being done, the clarinet 
sounded, and the arquebuses were discharged with the 
biggest demonstration of gladness: And his Lordship, the 
said lord Governor, Captain General, and Adelantado for per- 
petual memory, ordered that this act of possession be signed 
and sealed with the high seal of bis office and was so signed 
and under written with his name and sign, and was to be kept 
among the papers of the journey and Government, and that 
from this original as many copies be taken as might be 
wanted, noting the fact in the book of government, and 
signed with his name, the witnesses being the aforesaid 
most Reverend Father Commissary Fray Alonzo Martinez; 
Apostolic Commissary, Fray Francisco de San Miguel; Fray 
Francisco de Zamora, Fray Juan de Rosas, Fray Alonzo de 
Lugo, Fray Andres Corchado, Fray Juan Claros, Fray Crist6- 
bal de Salazar, Fray Juan de San Buenaventura, Fray Pedro 
de Vergara, Don Juan de Zaldivar Onate, my aide de camp. 
General, and the other officials of my staff, captains and sol- 
diers of the army aforesaid, on the day of the Ascension of 
our Lord, the 30th and last of April of this year 1598." 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 211 

The following are the names of the Fathers, Colonists, and 
soldiers that accompanied Ofiate: Don Crist6bal de Ofiate, 
son of the conqueror, who, in spite of being only 18 years of 
age, the conqueror had appointed him as lieutenant Governor 
and Captain General; Don Juan de Zaldivar, Aide de camp; 
Don Vicente Zaldivar, brother to Don Juan, chief sargent; 
Capt. Villagra, solicitor general; Capt. Bartolome Romeros, 
accountant; Capt. Zubia, purveyor; and the captains Juan 
Velarde, Juan Perez Donis, secretaries, the other officials and 
soldiers being the following: Cap, Pablo Aguilar Aranjo; 
Ascencion de Archuleta; Ayarde, Ensign; Dionicio Bar- 
ruelos; Bartolo; Juan Benitez; Divero; Pedro, de Ribera; 
Rason; Pedro de los Reyes; Alfredo Francisco de Posa y 
Penalosa; Juan Ranjel; Capt. Alonzo de Quesada; Cap. 
Juan Gutierrez de Boca Negra; Capt. Juan Pinero; Capt. 
Marcelo de Espinosa; Capt. Marcos Parfdn de los Godos; 
Capt. Diego Landin; Capt. Geronimo Marquez; Capt. Diego 
Nunez; Ensign, Bernabe de las Casas; Ensign Geronimo de 
Herredia; Ensign Leon Zapata, The colonists and soldiers 
are the following: Aranjo; Ascencion de Archuleta; Ayarde; 
Bartolo; Bibero; Juan Perez de Bustillo; Cesar Ortiz Cadimo; 
Juan Camacho; Estevan Carabajal; Carrera; Juan de Caso; 
Castillo; Juan Catalan Cavanillos; Cordero; Marcos Cortez; 
Pedro Sdnchez DaMiero; Juan Diaz; Juan Esarramal: Juan 
Fernandez; Manuel Francisco; Alvaro Garcia; Francisco 
Garcia; Marcos Garcia; Simon Garcia; Luis Gascon; Barto- 
lome Gonzales; Juan Gonzales; Juan Griego; Guevara; Fran- 
cisco Guillen; Antonio Gutierrez; Antonio Hernandez; Gon- 
zalo Hernandez: Pedro Hernandez; Cristobal de Herrera; Juan 
de Herrera; Alonzo Nunez de Hinojosa; Leon de Isasti: 
Jimenez, Francisco deLedesma: Domingo de Lizana;Cristoval 
Lopez; Juan Lopez; Alonzo Lucas; Lucio; Malea; Francisco 
Marquez; Hernan Martin; Juan Martinez; Juan Medel; 
Medinal Monroy; Munuera; Naranjo; Juan de Olague; Juan 
de Ortega; Ortiz; Regundo Paladin; Simon de Paz; Juan de 
Pedraza; Simon Perez; Juan Ranjel; Rascon; Pedro de los 
Reyes; Diego Robledo; Francisco Robledo; Pedro Robledo; 
Pedro Rodriguez; Sebastian Rodriguez; Lorenzo Salado; Juan 
de Salas; Alonzo Sanchez; Antonio Sarinana; Serrano; Varela; 
Francisco Vasquez; Jorge de la Vega; Francisco Vido; Juan 



212 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

de Victoria Vido; Villabba; Villaviciosa Zumala. The names 
of the priests that came with the expedition, besides Fray 
Alonzo Martinez, commissary, and Father Marques, as well 
as of those who came sometime after, are the following: Fray 
Francisco Zamora, Fray Juan Rosas, Fray Alonzo Lugo, Fray 
Francisco de San Miguel, Fray Andres Corchado, Fray Juan 
de San Buenaventura, Fray Pedro Vergar.i, Fray Cristobal 
Salazar, who was a relative to Onate, Fray Juan Claros, and 
the laybrothers, Martin, Francisco and Juan de Dios. Those 
are all the priests, who, a^jcording to Villagra, (ante), came with 
Onate, or little after his arrival into New Mexico. According 
to Father Fray Francisco Frejes, Onate must have brought 59 
missionar}^ priests, but Frejes and Barreiro who assert the 
same thing are surely in error, because, as we have already 
read in Villagra and Torquemada, the priests who came with 
Onate were not so many; had they been otherwise, Villagra 
and Torquemada would have given us the names. 

Pueblo of San Juan de ios Gaballeros. Origin of Its Name. 

The opportunity presents itself here of correcting one of 
the errors most common among almost all the English speak- 
ing historians, viz: That the Indian Pueblo, known by the 
name of "San Juan de Ios Gaballeros," received that name in 
1680, when Otermin and the rest of the Spaniards were 
expelled from New Mexico; and that on that occasion San 
Juan was given the name of "de Ios Gaballeros,'" because it 
was the only pueblo that remained faithful to the king. That 
is a grave error. Besides the Pueblo of San Juan there was 
another pueblo that of Pecos, (Gicuye), which also proved its 
loyalty by not taking part in the rebellion. Now, so far as 
the suffixed addition of "de Ios Gaballeros," that is another 
grave error. It was Oiiate who gave that pueblo the name of 
"San Juan de Ios Gaballeros." When the ceremony of taking 
possession which we have just noted was over, Oiiate on 
the next day passed over to the bank* on the left side of the 
Rio Grande continuing his march, and after many difficult 
journeys and untold sufferings, came on to the province of the 

* See Villajjra's "Hist, de la Nuevo M^jico." 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 213 

Piro Indians and visited many of the other pueblos along the 
Rio Gi-ande stopping in the Pueblo of Puaray for several days. 
In this Pueblo of Puaray he found painted on the wall a pic- 
ture, which had been drawn by the Indians, partially covered 
with white wash, representing the torture suffered by Agus- 
tin Rodriguez and Fathers Lopez and Santa Maria and two 
Indians of those who had come with Castano de Sosa named 
Cristobal and Tomas, respectively, entered said pueblo, to 
which he gave the name of "San Juan de los Caballeros." 
Villagrd in his "Canto 16" gives us the authority for the state- 
ment. Villagra says: 

There is not in the world a pleasure so 
Delightful as to l)e compared with that 
Which fills the bosom of a crew whose fleet, 
Thoug-h combated and harassed by the wrath 
Of rajj-ing- winds, at last does reach secure 
And hlessful anchorage in the calmness of 
A harbor that's well known. Our luck was not 
Unlike: for at the end of all our toils, 
And labors with alternate weal and woe , 
We were at leng'th approaching- full of joy 
A graceful pueblo beautifully laid 
Out, and to which the name was given of 
"San Juan,"" by many "de los Caballe — 
Ros," to recall the mem'ry of those who 
First hoisted high, in these new lands 
And regions vast, the bloody Ensignon 
Which Christ was, for the weal of all 
Mankind, upraised." 

The day following the entry of Onate at the Pueblo of San 
Juan was a day of fright for Onate and his men. Early in 
the morning all the Indians came out of their homes, weeping 
loud. They wept because they believed their crops were lost 
on account of the scarcity of water. The Spaniards were 
astonished at the piteous lamentations of the Indians. 
When informed of the reasons of such despair among the 
Indians they were able to tranquilize them by assuring them 
that the priests would pray to Heaven that the rains might 
come; as the priests, indeed, did. There came the next 
day such an abundant rain that the Indians were really 
astounded and so much so, that they looked upon the priests 



214 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

as meu descended from the clouds. The account of that 
memorable event, given by Villagra read asfollovrs: 

"The General being- at his meal one day, 

The savages raised such a frightful wail 

That we all thought the day had come when we 

Should all be called before the judgement seat 

Of God to give our last tremendous account 

Upon the viniversal ending of 

The world. Wherefore we, altered and confused, 

Asked them the cause of such unusual wail. 

They answered that their people cried for rain. 

That a long time had passed already and 

The clouds had ne'er again refreshed the earth 

With water, and that everywhere the ground 

Through drought was bursting open and was so 

Killed by the pang of thirst that not a hope 

Remained that any plants would yield a crop. 

The commissary, then, and Father Fray 

Cristobal trusting in that Sovereign Good 

In whom and whence we have both life and all 

We need, commanded that it should be said 

To them to cease their wailing: for they would 

At once be offering their prayers to 

The God of Heaven that he take a look 

Of pity on the land; and hoped that He, 

(Though they were disobedient children) would 

Send down abundant rains, and that these would 

In such a manner, come as to cause their 

Plants to revive and yield abundant crops. 

And just as when the children hush 

Because one gives them of the things for which 

They ask, and cry, and are afflicted: So, 

Too, they did hush remaining quiet, yet 

With anxious hope awaiting sure the rain 

For which they cried so much in their distress. 

And scarcely had, next day, the hour arrived 

In which their wail had burst; when lol the sky 

With clouds o'ercast poured forth such torrents of 

Refreshing rain, that the barbarians, 

With awe o'erpowered stood in mute gratitude 

Admiring God"s unbounded Mercy." 

Bonilla's Expedition Is Verified. 

Concerning the Expedition of Bonilla and Humana (of which 
we gave an account in the last chapter of the first book of 
this work) v^e will now give the information which the Indian 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 215 

Jusepe gave to Onate; at the same time we shall give the 
account of the description vs^hich said Indian made of La 
Quiviraand its riches whereby he awakened inOnate's heart 
the desire to pass to that much talked of land. According 
to Villagra, Jesupe said: 

Upon the heels of this success there came 

An Indian whose baptismal name, he said, 

Jusepe was: and that he came in flight 

From where the people were who had come with 

Bonilla, contrabands, without due leave. 

He gave the news that there Humana had 

Left him already dead, cut with a knife, 

Because of mutual enmities they had, 

And that this governor, as General 

Remained of all those men: that he left him 

Upon the margin of a stream so wide 

And copious that it had a league in full. 

And that its distance was six hundred miles 

From our new camp and settlement: besides 

He said, that, goaded by th' inviting news 

He had of many towns abounding in great sums 

Of gold, was penetrating deep into 

The land, and that he hoped to cross in floats 

The stream because he deemed the country well 

Peopled, as showed the many smokes 

We could discover from this side and see: 

He also told us that they had passed through 

A pueblo which was so surpassing big 

That they employed one and one half a day 

To get across its length from end to end. 




This is tlie picture of the Royal Pantlieon "Eseorial" situated 3(i miles from Madrid, Spain, wliere 
nearly all the bodies of the Spanisli Monurchs are entombed.— The first casket on the left side con- 
tains the remains of Philip II, under whose authority Onate conquered New Mexico, 15it8-ii. 
The first casket on the right side contains the remains of Charles II under whose authority and 
protection De Vargas was enableil to effect the second and permanent conquest of New Mexico, 
UV.*2-:i. This photograph was like that of the tomb of the Catholic Kings, procured lately for me in 
Madrid by the same gentleman, Mr. Pablo M. HeriiAnde/..— Thk Ai'THOK. 



CHAPTER U. 



Various Voyages of Onate — The First Colony Is Founded With the 
Name of "San Francisco — The Colonists Prepare to Cultivate 
the Cround — Meeting in the Colony — Some Colonists Take to 
Flight — Villagra Imprisons Them and Chastises Two of Them With 
the Penalty of Death by Strangulation — Onate Has Intents of Dis- 
covering the Gulf of California — Rebellion of the Acomas — Villagra 
is Sent to Mexico — Dissensions and Complaints of the Priests — 
Other Incidents. 

First Colony Discussed, 15984599. 

Before entering into the full accounts proper to this chap- 
ter, it is necessary to remind the reader that almost, with- 
out exception, all the English speaking historians — Bancroft 
excepted — who have written on the history of New Mexico, 
(including Mr. U. E. Twitchell, who published his "Leading 
Facts of New Mexican History" in the year of 1911, or some 
few months prior to the publication of this work in the English 
language) afiirm that Oiiate founded his first colony on the 
west side of the Rio Grande. They are, all, in error, espe- 
cially Mr. Twitchell, who goes so far as to say (Lead. Facts 
of New Mex. Hist., vol. 1, p. 316) that "Bancroft is in great 
error as to the exact location of the capital (which was the 
first colony) first established by Onate, when he says that it 
was at San Juan de los Caballeros. He is also mistaken as 
to the place where the chapel of San Gabriel was located. 
He would have them both on the left (the east) of the Rio 
Grande, while as a matter of fact they were on the right 
(west side) bank, and north of the confluence of the Chama 
with the Rio Grande.'"* As already stated (ante) it is evident 

*Twitchell's translation (Lead. Facts of New Mex. Hist., vol. 1, 
p. 315) has it that because the ''inhabitants of San Juan received the 
Spaniards with great courtesy, and thereafter the pueblo was known 
as that of San Juan de los Caballeros" the name of "los Caballeros" 
was g-iven to the pueblo l\y Oiiate. The conflict, then, between Mr. 
Twitchell's translation and Villagra's report is, undoubtedly, due to 
one of two causes, i. e.: that the translator never saw Villagra's work 
or that he did not understand Villagra's Spanish.— The Author. 



218 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

that Mr. Twitchell's translator never saw Villagrd's history 
of New Mexico, in fact, I believe that he relied, entirely, on 
Torquemada's works (cited by Mr. Twitchell as a note on 
page 816, of his 1 vol., supra). Torquemada states in vol. 1 
of his ^^31onar quia Indianorum^' at p. 672, vol. 1, that Onate 
"made his settlement at a place named San Gabriel, which is 
located in thirty-seven degrees of latitude north, and is situ- 
ated between two rivers, the smallest of which is used ta 
irrigate the wheat, corn and barley fields. The other and 
larger river, which is called del Norte, abounds in fish of 
large size and good." This last authority left to itself would 
seem to justify Twitchell's assertions that Bancroft was 
wrong. Yet, when compared with what Villagra, who was 
not only one of the conquerors but one of the colonists as 
well, states, it will be readily seen that Bancroft was right, 
and even Torquemada can be taken as being correct for 
really the said first colony was founded between two rivers, 
but one of these rivers was not the Chama, as asserted by 
Mr. Twitchell, but it was no other than the Santa Cruz river, 
which empties from the east into the Rio Grande, some four 
or five miles south of the pueblo of San Juan de los 
Caballeros. Bancroft relied on the authority of the famous 
historians Escalante and Salmeron. Torquemada, who 
wrote his works eleven years after the founding of the said 
first colony, relied on the information of others, for although 
u Franciscan himself, he was not one of the number of colon- 
ists, and I rely, wholly and absolutely, on the very best of 
authority, an eye witness and a colonist, on Villagra's own 
word, as it will be seen further on. 

Founding of First Colony — Missions are Established. 

We will now show how we know that the said first colony 
was founded on the east side of the Rio Grande, and south of 
the pueblo of San Juan delos Caballeros. For various weeks 
Ofiate remained at the place where he had camped near the 
said pueblo of San Juan in consultation with his captains^ 
and the priests, regarding the place most convenient for the 
foundation of the colony. After many and very heated dis- 
cussions, Ofiate made up his mind to invite the Indian Gover- 
nors of all the pueblos with the view of demanding from 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 21& 

them solemn submission and obedience to the crown of Spain. 
This he accomphshed without the shghtest resistance; the 
chiefs from all the neighboring pueblos were gathered and, 
after a paternal peroration from Ofiate they swore allegiance- 
and obedience to the crown and asked to be instructed in the- 
Christian faith.* Whereupon Oiiate assigned priests to the 
different pueblos as follows : Father Miguel to the Pecos pro- 
vince. Father Zamora to the province of the Queres. Father 
Lugo to the province of the Jemes. Father Corchado to 
the province of Zia. Father Claros to the province of the 
Teguas and to Father Cristoval "the province of those noble 
Teguas where the encampment was," 

The reader will thus understand that the first colony could 
not have been founded on the west side of the Rio Grande 
without Villagra making mention of the recrossing of the 
Rio Grande, and also because Villagra clearly states that the 
assignment of priests was made at San Juan de los Caba-^ 
lleros, where the encampment was, and that to the last of the 

* "A lo cual todos replicaron, 

Que quisiesen primero doctrinarlos, 

En aquello que asi les proponian, 

De aquel hombre mortal pasible y muerto, 

Y que si bien a todos estubiesse, 
Dejarsu ley, por recibir aquella, 
Que alii les ensenaban y mostravan, 
Que todos con gran gusto lo harian, 

Y que si viesen no les conbenia, 

Que no mandasen que ellos recibiesen, 
Cosa que no entendiesen ni alcanzacen, 
Con cuia puerta luego el Comisario, 
Sembro sus religiosos como Christo, 
Sembro el Apostolado por Provincias 

Y asi d, San Miguel luego le dieron, 
La Provincia de Pecos, y a Zamora, 

La Provincia de Queres, y al gran Lugo. 
La Provincia de Emes, y d, Corchado, 
La Provincia de Zia, y al buen Claros, 
La Provincia de Tiquas, y con esto, 
Dieron a Fray Cristoval la Provincia, 
De aquellos nobles Teguas donde el cauipo, 
Quiso hazer asiento, y alii juntos, 
Los soldados a una hicieron fiestas." 

Villagra's Hist, de la Nuevo Mexico. Canto 17. p. 9(i. 



"220 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

priests so assigned, Fr. Cristobal was given the province 
•of "those noble Teguas where the encampment was made." 

Now, as a further proof that Bancroft is right and Twitchell 
wrong, we will show that the San Gabriel chapel was located 
•on the east side of the Rio Grande, as Bancroft affirms, and 
not on the west side of said river as claimed by Twitchell. As 
heretofore stated, [ ignored entirely all the authorities cited 
by all known authors on New Mexico history and take my 
information from the fountain itself, which, in this instance 
is Villagra. No mention is made by Villagrd, of any chapel 
-other than the one tirst built in the colony for the Indians of 
San Juan de los Caballeros. It stands to reason that said 
■chapel would not have been built across the Rio Grande some 
three or four miles from said pueblo and with the Rio Grande 
between said pueblo and the chapel; no, it would have been 
the height of folly. The chapel was built by the Royal Ensign, 
Peiialoza, under the direction of the Father Comisario (Supe- 
rior), as stated by Villagra: "And as the Royal Ensign, Pena- 
loza, came willingly with all his people, for the pueblo of San 
Juan, the Religious immediately built a] chapel, which was 
blessed by Father Comisario, who, with great joy baptized a 
:great number of children." * 

We shall now present to the reader the strongest and most 
positive proof in support of our contention; that tiie tirst 
^settlement, San Gabriel, which was the first capital of New 
Mexico, was located on the east side of the Rio Grande, and 
close to the pueblo of San Juan. The testimony we now 
offer is none other that of Onate's own word. In the year of 
1599, and on the 11th day of January of that year, Oilate 
appointed, named and designated Captain Villagrdas a mem- 
bar of the Council of War ("vocal del Consejo de Guerra"). 
The official appointment concludes thus: "Given and sealed 
with my official seal in this Pueblo of San Juan Bautista, the 

* "'Y como el Real Alferez Peiialoza, 
Llego con todo el campo sin disgusto, 
Al pueblo de San Juan los Religfiosos, 
Hizieron luego Ig-lesia y la bendijo. 
El Padre Comisario, y baptizaron, 
Mucha suma de ninos con gran fiesta." — 

Villagra's Hist, de la Nueva Mexico.'' Canto IH, p. 90. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OP NEW MEXICO. 221 

eleventh day of the month of January of one thousand and 
five hundred and ninety-nine years. — Don Jvan de Oflnte — 
By order of the Senor Gobernado — Don Juan Gutierrez Baca- 
negra. * 

Onate now made up his mind to make himself, personally, 
a voyage throughout all the pueblos with the object of select- 
ing the choicest place to found "the city." Onate, therefore, 
started out on the 13th of July, (1599), towards the Pueblo of 
Picuris (which the Spaniards named San Buena Ventura) 
accompanied by several soldiers, visiting the Pueblos of 
Picuris and Taos, and returning on the 19th of the same 
month to San Juan, whence he continued his voyage, the next 
day, to the south. He visited the Pueblos of San Ildefonso,. 
Pecos, Galisteo, Santo Domingo, Cia and Jemez, discovering 
near thislast pueblo, the now famous sulphur and hot springs. 
None of the places he visited seemed adequate to him for the 
purpose of establishing the first town. He returned to San 
Juan reaching the encampment on the 10th of August. 

When the priests and the rest of the people had heard the 
account given by Onate, it was determined by unanimous vote 
that the foundation of the "city" should be made upon the 
site where the colonists and the army were encamped, as 
already stated. The obstacles, which for so long a time had 
caused the delay, being now removed, the construction of a 
great ditch was commenced on August 11th, 1599, for the con- 
duct of the water necessary in the works of manufacture and 
domestic use. As to whether or not, a city or simply a village 
was built, nothing is said to us by either Villagrd or Onate. It 
is certain, according to Villagra, that besides a church, sev- 
eral dwelling houses, and corrals were built, and that prepara- 
tions were made for the colonists to enter upon the cultivation 
of the land, the year following. It is equally certain that only 
a portion of said village remained standing for a very short 
time after it had been founded, but it is not known, whether 
on account of dissensions among the Spaniards, or for other 

* "'Dada y sellada con el sello de mi oficio en el Pueblo de San 
Juan Bautista, a once dias del mes de Enero de mil y quinientos y 
noventa y nueve aiios." — "Don Juan de Ofiate" — "Por mandado del 
Senor Gobernador"" — .Juan Gutierrez Bocanegra." — Villagra, Hist> 
de la Nueva Mexico, (Pag-e 27, Ap. 1st.) 



222 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

reasons, many of the colonists dispersed, peopling different 
places in the immediate surroundings of San Juan. It is also 
known that the Spaniards called said village "San Gabriel" 
and also "San Francisco.'" These facts are conclusively shown 
by Villagra. 

Great discontent reigned now among the colonists and 
soldiers occasioned by the scarcity of victuals and the neglect 
with which Ofiate was treating his people, as will be seen 
before this chapter closes; the displeasure culminating in a 
mutiny in which the leader of the seditious faction was Cap- 
tain Aguilar. It was not possible, however, for Aguilar 
-and the forty-five soldiers who followed him, to diffuse 
among the rest of the soldiers, the odium which they 
had conceived against Oiiate. Onate would have punished 
them very severely, had not Aguilar and his turbulent fac- 
tion implored his pardon on their knees and with tears in 
their eyes. Pour out of the forty five who had helped to 
promote the mutiny deserted, taking with them, by theft, 
several horses, but Onate sent in pursuit of them. Captains 
Villagra and Mdrquez with an escort of soldiers; the fugi- 
tives were overtaken near Santa Barbara, but Villagra re- 
<;overed only the horses and captured two of the deserters 
who were punished, by Villagrd with the penalty of 
the gallows, or by taking their lives as he did, by means of 
strangulation. As Villagra was so close to Santa Barbara, 
he did not want to return to New Mexico without first visit- 
ing that point. He did so, and sent thence to the Viceroy an 
account of all that had happened. This occurred towards 
the beginning of September 1598. Villagra and his com- 
panions returned to New Mexico at about the middle part of 
November of the same year. 

Onate s Western Trip — Mines are Found Again. 

Whilst Villagrd was in pursuit of the deserters, Oilate 
made a trip to the West, accompanied by Father Martinez, 
Commisary (Superior) of the Franciscan Friars who had come 
with him. Daring the trip Oiiate visited all the pueblos 
of the provinces of Tiguex, Jemes, Acoma, Zuni, and Moqui, 
^nd received the formal submission of all the pueblos in said 
provinces. From Moqui he sent Captains Farfan and Que- 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 223 

sada on a journey of exploration and in search of mines. 
They found very rich mines some ninety miles (30 leguas) to 
the west of Moqui, discovering at the same time, tracks and 
indications of former explorers who were doubtlessly, Espejo 
and his companions, as the reader will recall Espejo's voyage 
in the first book of this work. 

Anxious for the discovery of the South Sea (the Gulf of 
California) Oilate now determined to pursue his voyage until 
he would reach the Colorado River, and to follow the course 
of the river to its mouth in the South Sea, and, as he was 
familiar with the direction and road which he should follow, 
both from what he knew of the expeditions of his predecessors 
and from the new information he received from the Indians 
of Moqui and Zuiii, he did not hesitate in making up his 
mind. Moroever, he determined first to leave everything in 
perfect order at San Gabriel, as well as orders for Villagrd, 
and Vicente Zalidvar, whom he had sent on an exploring 
tour to the plains in the direction of Quivira. 

From the measures taken by Oiiate it can be conjectured) 
that he expected the revolt which, on account of his bad 
conduct and carelessness towards the colonists and their 
families, had been secretly brewing in the colony. He had 
appointed Don Juan Zaldivar, Governor and Commandant 
during his absence of the colony and of the soldiers who had 
remained at San Gabriel. He now sent orders to Don Juan 
Zaldivar to deliver the command to Vicente Zaldivar imme- 
diately after the return of the latter to San Grabiel, and that 
he, Don Juan Zaldivar, accompanied by thirty soldiers should 
set out for Zuni, where Onate w^ould wait for him. Discord 
in the colony had at this date grown to such extreme, that it 
was not possible for Don Juan to comply promptly with the 
orders of his general. Hunger had, to a great extent, 
decimated the number of the colonists. The want of corn 
and wheat was producing desolation, not only among the 
Spaniards, but also among the Indians, who were now sub- 
sisting on herbs of the field, as the Franciscan Fathers 
declared it. According to Father Escalona (post), the very 
sad situation of the colonists, their families, and the Indians 
was due to two causes: (1) The negligence of Oiiate in 
seeking means for obtaining the resources necessary for the 



224 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

maintenance of the people and Indians. (2) To the quenchless 
thirst after riches which had taken possession of him and 
his captains to such degree that they did not attend to any 
other business, but that of exploring unknown regions in 
search of gold, gold and more gold, leaving the priests and the 
rest of the people exposed to die of hunger or to be murdered 
by the Indians. The terrible drought that had prevailed 
that summer having caused the complete ruin of the crops 
and starvation was doing its dreadful work. 

Autum was already far advanced when Villagra and 
Marquez, returned to San Gabriel from Santa Barbara. At* 
soon as Villagra learned that Onate was to be found at Zuni 
making preparations for his voyage to the South Sea, he set 
out on his march with his horse and dog as his only compa- 
nions. Before getting to Zuni he suffered a good deal 
through the inclemency of the weather, and for want of food, 
so much so that according to his own statement he was obhged 
to kill his faithful companion, the dog, for the purpose of 
satiating his hunger, a thing, however, he could not do for 
lack of fire to cook the meat, and he might have perished by 
hunger and cold, had not three soldiers whom Onate had sent 
in search of horses met him. 

Don Juan Zaldivar Goes Out to Reinforce Onate His Tragic Fate — 
Battle of Zuni. 

We have seen Onate at Zuiii preparing for his voyage to 
the South Sea; Vicente Zaldivar absent from the Colony in 
an exploring tour on the plain; and Villagrd and Marquez. 
returning to San Gabriel. Now we shall relate the treason 
of which the Indians of Acoma availed themselves in order 
to assassinate Don Juan Zaldivar and those who went with 
him to the pueblo: and the terrible vengeance taken by the 
Spaniards. We w'ill explain the treason of the Acomas, the 
battle fought to revenge Zaldivar's death, and the surrender 
of the Pueblo of Acoma as it occurred. Here it is: As Don Juan 
Zaldivar was not able to transfer his command to his brother 
Vicente with the haste wiiich the order of Onate demanded 
he had to wait till the 18th of November in order to appease 
the malcontents. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 225 

On that day he delivered the command to his brother, Don 
Vicente Zaldivar, and set out with 30 soldiers to reinforce 
Onate. 

Death or Captain Juan Zaldivar. 

Don Juan Zaldivar took a notion to visit the Acoma Indians 
who had ardently requested him to do so giving him the 
impression that they were going to furnish him with as many 
provisions as he desired to take for his journey. Don Juan 
did not suspect the treason of which he was going to be the 
victim. He acceded willingly to the requests of the Indians, 
entering the pueblo on the 4th of December, accompanied by 
six soldiers, and leaving the others encamped at the foot of 
the rock. Don Juan seeing the cordiality of which they were 
the object, was careless in taking the necessary precautions 
to protect himself. The Indians employed friendly tactics to 
separate the Spaniards, and, once they had succeeded, 
they rushed upon them with such ferocity and in 
such large numbers that, despite the extraordinary bravery 
and almost superhuman valor of Zaldivar and his com- 
panions, after three hours of a deadly struggle, fought 
hand to hand with the savages, all the Spaniards perished, 
the last being Don Juan Zaldivar who fell dead at the mortal 
blow of a club in the hands of the Indian Zutecapan. At the 
entrance of the pueblo three Spaniards had remained. The 
three Spaniards mentioned succeeded in escaping after a 
precipitate flight, and in communicating to their comrades 
below what had happened. Without loss of time the com- 
mander of the soldiers sent a courier to Oiiate and another to 
the colony. It is not difficult to imagine the anguish felt by 
the Spaniards on learning of the treason of the Acomas; 
swearing to chastise them all with death they began to organ- 
ize an expedition of extermination against the Acomas. 

The death of Don Juan Zaldivar caused Onate to abandon, 
for the time being, his voyage to the South Sea, the sad 
event obliging him to return to San Gabriel in order to con- 
sult with the priests concerning the causes necessary to 
declare war against thePueblo of Acoma. With all haste Ofiate 
returned to San Gabriel with all the soldiers of his expedition 
and those who had been left of the force of Don Juan Zaldivar, 



226 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

firmly resolved to inflict a severe punishment upon the treach- 
•erous Indians. Onate, therefore, determined to declare war 
against that pueblo; but in order not to expose himself to the 
criticism and censure of his superiors, he desired first that 
the priests should define to him tne causes that justified a 
government in declaring war. The answer of the priests, in 
which they all concurred, left no room for Onate to doubt 
the justice that protected him in his determination. The 
answer is signed by Fray Alonzo Martinez, apostolic com- 
missary, and superior of the religious men of the expedition, 
which, on account of its great importance in history, we 
reproduce textually. 

Case Presented by the Governor That the Religious Fathers Should 
Give Their Opinion Upon. 

"Don Juan de Onate, Governor and Captain General, and 
Adelantado of the Provinces of New Mexico, asks what is 
required, for the justification of a just war, to be done (by 
the person waging it,) with regard to the conquered and 
their possessions." 

"Answer of the Gommissary and the Religious." 

"The question and answer contain two points: In the 
first place, what is required for a war to be just. And the 
answer is: Authority from a prince that recognizes no super- 
ior, as the Roman Pontiff, the Emperor and Kings of Castile, 
who enjoy the privilege of an Empire in not recognizing a 
superior in what is temporal, and others; both they, by 
their person or by whoever has their power to that effect, 
because a private person cannot declare war, for it is neces- 
sary to call out people for that purpose, and this is an act 
belonging to the prince alone, and he can demand justice 
before his superior. 

"In the second place it is required that there be a just 
cause for the aforesaid war, which may be one of four 
■causes: For defending the innocent who suffer injustice, to 
the defense of whom princes are obliged to come, whenever 
they are able to do so; for the restoration of goods unjustly 
taken; for punishing delinquents and culprits against the 
laws, it they are their subjects, or against the laws of nature, 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 227 

if they are not; and the last and principal one is, for the 
establishment and preservation of peace, for this is the prin- 
cipal end for which war is ordained. 

"The third requisite for the entire justification of war is a 
just and upright intention in those who fight, and it will be 
just if the fighting is done on account of any of the four 
causes we have just mentioned; and not for ambition of com- 
manding, nor for mortal vengeance, nor through coveteous- 
ness of the goods of others. 

"The second point of the question is: What may persons 
do, who wage said just war, with the conquered and their 
possessions? To which is answered that the said conquered 
and their possessions are at the mercy of the conqueror, in 
the form and manner required by the just cause of the war, 
for, if it was waged for the detention of innocent persons he 
can proceed till he sets them free and puts them in safety, 
and he can satisfy them and satisfy himself of the damages 
they have suffered and of those injuries they have undergone 
by this very fact, similarly to Moses in his defense of the 
Hebrews who were ill-treated by the Egyptians. 

"If the cause of the war is the restoration of possessions 
(property) it can be satisfied by giving and taking (as much 
for as much) in the same species of possessions or goods or 
the value according to justice; and if it be desired to employ 
the authority of a minister of divine justice as a judge of 
human justice; such minister and judge can as such, further 
extend his hand to the goods of theconqueredsettingand fixing 
a penalty and punishing his offense without any duty of 
restitution, similarly to the judge, who hangs someone be- 
cause he stole some maravedies, or reales. 

"If the cause of the war is the punishment of delinquent 
and guilty persons they and their goods remain at his, the 
conqueror's, will and mercy in accordance with the laws of 
his kingdom and republic, if they are subjects, and if they 
are not, he can reduce them to live according to divine and 
natural law through all the ways and means he may deem 
convenient in accordance with justice and reason, trampling 
all obstacles of whatever nature that to this end he may 
encounter, if they are such as would obstruct the just effect 
he pretends. 



228 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

''And, finally, if the cause of war is universal peace or the 
peace of his kingdom and republic he can with very much 
more justice wage the aforesaid war, and destroy all incon- 
veniences that might obstruct the aforesaid peace until it is 
gained, and once gained, he must not wage it further, for the 
act of war is not an act pertaining to election and will, but to 
just occasion and necessity; and in this manner he must 
demand peace before he commences (war) if he wages war 
only for its sake (peace's); and if he wages it for other causes 
than the ones already mentioned he can repeat and take the 
due satisfaction abstaining himself from damaging the inno- 
cent, for these are always blameless in all right, as they have 
committed no trespass, and abstaining as much as possible 
from causing death to men; first, because that course is most 
odious in the sight of God, so much so that he would not 
receive a temple or mansion from the just David because he 
had been a homicide. Second, because of the manifest con- 
demnation of the body and soul that is caused by death in 
the opposers who therein fight unjustly; many might be 
converted and justified, in the course of time, if they did not 
die there; since that is true after the necessity or manifest 
danger of death cease; or if victory is otherwise impossible, 
or by just decree of a competent judge; in such cases those 
who kill are not to blame, because as ministers of divine 
justice they execute, but rather those who die because, as 
guilty they deserved it; and this is my opinion excepting 
another one better. Fray Alonzo Martinez, apostolic com- 
missary." 

"This was also the sentiment of all the fathers who all 
signed it."'* 

Expedition Against the Acomas. 

The opinion of the Fathers being heralded, the prepara- 
tions were made for the campaign. Captain Vicente Zaldivar 
was chosen commandant of the expedition. In the choice of 
Don Vicente, Onate showed very good judgment, for Don 
Vicente, being a man of great valor and a very famous 
captain, and as he was a brother of Don Juan, it was fitting 
that he rather than any one else, should avenge the death of 

* Villagrd's ''Hist, de la Nuevo M^jico." 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 229 

his brother. Captain Vicente Zaldivar left San Gabriel on 
January 12th, 1599, accompanied by Captains Zubia, Romero, 
Aguilar, Farfdn, Villagra, Mdrquez, Juan Cortez, and Juan 
Velarde, with 70 soldiers, all well mounted. They arrived 
at Acoma on the 21st of the month. The Spaniards en- 
camped near the Penol (rock). As soon as he had set things 
in the order which the critical condition required, Zaldivar 
sent a message by a sergeant to the Indians demanding their 
surrender and asking them to come down and be punished 
for the murders the^^ had committed. The Indians laughed 
and scorned the messenger telling him to say to Don Vicente 
that they would take his life and the lives of those of his troops 
too, if they dare penetrate the entrances to the pueblo. The 
answer of the Indians inflamed the spirits of the Spaniards 
to the pitch of effecting the surrender of the pueblo or of 
perishing in the combat. The orders were therefore, given 
for the assault on the next day, the 22nd of January, Saint 
Vincent's Day— a thing they accomplished at peep of day. 

Assault — Surrender of the Pueblo. 

After the most obstinate battle and great losses suffered 
by the Spaniards, and the horrible massacre of Indians (600 
of them having died) the few remaining Indians came down 
to surrender themselves unconditionally on the 24th of the 
month. The act of surrendering being over, the Indians in- 
quired after that valiant rider with the gray beard, who, on a 
brisk, white steed and accompanied by a handsome queen, 
was helping the Spaniards. The Spaniards considered that a 
miracle had been performed saying that the rider the Indians 
saw must have been Santiago (St. James) and the queen, the 
Virgin, an apparition which they did not see. Villagr^ gives 
us in graphic phrases an account of the signal victory of the 
Spanish Arms and of the heroic defense of their pueblo made 
by the Indians. Villagrd speaks: 

"Tired from the exhausting journey, let us liave 
Christ's blest, unconquered ensign hoisted here. 
Let tears be repressed, for they leave wounds 
Upon afflicted souls. And thou, great king, 
Most August Phillip, who a listening ear 
Hast lent to my uncultured muse, I do 
Beseech thee not to grow impatient, no I 



230 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

For here to the promised post I'm come 

Trusting, grand sovereign, in the excellence 

Of thine unbounded grandeur, and that as 

The father of the warlike exercise 

Thou wilt vouchsafe to open for me a most 

Serene post, by whose life-inspiring power 

Strengthened, I may my sails risk to the wind 

Returning to the frightful conflagration 

Whose blaze, vibrating savagely, forth belched 

Its lightning bolts with sparks and cinder mixed, 

Enveloping the lofty houses in 

Their awe-inspiring and consuming flames. 

See here, my Lord, high roofs, and walls and lofts, 

And dwellings that break in a thousand portions 

Open, and crumbling swift roll on the ground 

In sudden crash, and, like a living fire 

Deep in the scorched earth do bury all 

The wretched dullness, leaving not a trace 

Of anything that's not devoured, consumed. 

See, too, my Lord, the many corpses that 

In their despair fall from the summit of 

The wall, and torn by rocks lie on the earth 

Outstretched in the minutest fragments of 

Flesh and bone. The savages, both men 

And women, who roast with their little ones. 

Most piteously lament their misery 

And fate. The sei'geant to compassion's moved 

Before that harvest woeful, grim of death. 

As when a skillful pilot's wont to exert 

Himself amid the storm and tempest of 

The ocean, leaping to and fro, and for 

The common safety strives, commanding crew 

And passengers with anxious shouts; and then 

All join and rush in fervid haste to aid 

Themselves and save the slender vessel from 

The wrath of angry wave and raging wind 

Which toss it 'mid a thousand watery mountains 

So he (the sergeant) urging Chumpo and 

Other barbarians wlio wished for peace 

Assures and promises upon his faith 

As honored knight that he will spare the lives 

Of all if they but do abstain from that 

Most dreadful butchery and cruel strife 

Which they — unhappy wretches — called upon 

Themselves. No sooner had the poor old man's 

Ears caught the words of that chivalrous youth 

Than, clamoring in loud wild voices with 

The few barbarians attending him. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 231 

He did persuade them and exhort by signs 

And earnest pleadings of a fatiier to 

Desist and not to sacrifice themselves 

To a much horrid death; for he had pledged 

His knighted word to spai'e their lives and give 

Them noble treatment — not in doubtful terms 

But certainly without suspicion and 

Without disguise, and free from vile intent 

As after ligthing's shock has passed, we see 

Our neighbors in suspense, with death's pale hue 

Upon their cheeks, their throbbing hearts within 

Their breasts in palpitation, they came out 

Mistrustful still, to see and ascertain 

The wreck caused by the fight already passed: 

In similar manner many others in 

Dull, timorous solemn pace appi'oached 

Quite cai^eful not to step upon the bloody 

Corpses of friends, the loyal shield of those 

Grim walls that with their blood were bathed and dyed. 

So, too, sad, trembling, and afflicted hemmed 

In on both sides they nearer came and nearer 

Caressing the Castillian band and all 

Their kin with palled features, yet with signs 

Of cordial pleasure beaming on iheir faces. 

On seeing them reduced, and now withdrawn 

From that fierce, mortal struggle which they had 

Invited, they appeared as do the fields 

Of wheat that nod and bend before 

The furious blowing of the mighty winds 

Whose heavy gusts rush fiercely through their stalks 

And crush them in the ground: Ev'n so 

Six hundred warriors conquered and disarmed 

Surrendered, and within the town, with their 

Wives and their children prostrate, gave their arms 

And altogether placed themselves without 

Condition at the hands and mercy of 

The sergeant in most quiet stillness, moved 

By the good Chumpo who had promised all 

Their lives, and there and then gave it to them 

And I doubt that we could without his help 

Have taken that numancia which, though now 

Lost and unhappy, was determined to 

Rather remain deserted and unpeopled 

Than ever to surrender that small force." 

The decisive route of the Indians of Acoma was a most 
severe lesson for all the pueblos of New Mexico, resulting in 



232 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

the complete pacification of all the Indians. The Spaniards, 
however, did not doubt that the bloody strife with the Acoma 
Indians was anything else than the fruit of the cruel conduct 
of Coronado and Cardenas towards the Indians of Tiguex, 
about which the reader has already been informed in the 
first bDok of this work, and that the hatred thus begotten in 
the hearts of the Indians was yet yielding fruit without the 
hopes that in future times a general uprising might be 
avoided, an uprising that perhaps, mJght annihilate the 
Spaniards as it happened, in the year 1680, concerning 
which a detailed account is given in another part of this 
work. The seeds of hatred were also taking root in the 
Spanish encampment; the officers and soldiers were giving 
inhuman treatment to Indians obliging them to perform work 
beyond their strength, depriving them of the necessaries of 
life and using them as beasts of burden. The priests opposed 
all these abuses censuring and upbraiding the Spaniards 
without excluding Oilate himself, whence the friction between 
the priests and the military followed, a friction which became 
afterward a historical scandal from which the exposure of 
the cruel and criminal conduct of Onate and his soldiers 
towards the Indians was made by Father Fr. Escalona from 
New Mexico in 1601, as will be seen in the next chapter. 
Concerning that matter, and concerning the other voyages 
that Onate made we shall treat in the chapter following. 



CHAPTER IIL 



Onate Reports His Operations and Asks for Aid to Continue the 
Conquest^ — Sends Emissaries to Spain and Mexico — Disagree- 
ments Between the Colonists is Strained to the Danger Point — 
Ofiate's Voyage to Quivira — Fatal Outcome of Disagreements — 
The Priests Expose the Distressing Situation — The King Crants 
Onate and his People the Title of Hijosdalgos — Onate Crowns 
his Voyage of Conquest With a Prosperous Trip to the Gulf of 
California and the Founding of the City of Santa Fe. 



1599-1605- 



The reaction of the glorious victory of Don Vicente Zaldi- 
var and his handful of heroes over the w^arlike Acomas was 
most favorable for the Spaniards, and as for the Indians, it 
was a genuine blessing. The mere thought of the bloody 
struggle that met the sight of the seventy nine Spaniards 
{seventy soldiers and nine officers) in the assault, capture, 
and surrender of Acoma whose natural fortress (El Penol) 
even in our days seems impregnable, would have been suf- 
ficient motive to dishearten a well-disciplined army fully pro- 
vided with the most efficient accoutrements of war in our age, 
and that without taking into account the fact that the pueblo 
was defended by 6000 warriors. The heroism displayed by 
Zaldivar and his comrades, each one a real hero, in such an 
uneven contest has no paraleli in the history of the conquest 
of the American Continent. With such an efficacious lesson 
as the Acomas received during the three days and two 
nights (the 22, 23, and 24th of January 1599 supra) that the 
celebrated battle lasted, the authority of the Spanish Gov- 
ernment was recognized and feared by all the provinces of 
New Mexico. From that date all the said provinces entered 
into an era of material, moral, and religious development. 
The Franciscan Fathers divided the provinces into districts 
and to each district a priest was sent. The priests, ever the 
sincere and loyal friends of the natives began at once to 



234 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OP NEW MEXICO. 

establish industrial schools in all the districts (see Father 
Benavides account to the King of Spain marked "appendix 
tirst" at the end of this work.) In those schools the priests 
taught reading, writing, agriculture, music, carpentry and 
other arts necessary for the complement of the civilization of 
the Indians. Onate's occupation, in the meanwhile, consist- 
ed only in the search of glory and wealth. His public and 
private conduct became daily more reprehensible, and as the 
priests continually warned and upbraided him, he very 
naturally came to the point of hating them from which re- 
sulted the most untoward contradictions which finally ended 
in the withdrawal of almost all the priests and a great num- 
ber of colonists to Santa Barbara (post) and the re-awakening 
in the Indians of the hatred and distrust which the cruelty 
of Coronado and Cardenas (ante book first) had infused in 
them. That hatred of the Indians against the Spaniards 
became deep-seated in their hearts till the year 1680, when 
it burst forth causing the expulsion of the Spaniards, con- 
cerning that we will speak in another chapter. Let us now 
return to Onate. 

Zaldivar, Villagra, Farfan and Pinero go to Spain and Mexico as 
Emissaries. 

Filled with sanguine anticipations, Onate thought it now 
the opportune moment to give the viceroy an account of the 
conquest and pacification of New Mexico and to solicit from 
him material aid and protection for the continuance of the 
discovery of other lands. He at once set himself to the task 
of preparing a long and detailed letter descriptive of his 
voyage and of its happy results. The letter was taken to 
Spain by Don Vicente Zaldivar, and to Mexico by Captains 
Villagrd, Farfan and Pinero, who set out on their long jour- 
ney on the 2nd of March, 1599. Oiiate demanded no less 
than 500 men and the accoutrements of war necessary to 
carry to a successful termination the conquest and coloni- 
zation of the unknown countries which he called "new worlds, 
pacific and larger than those given the emperor by the good 
Marquez." Those "new worlds"' were the Provinces of the 
Gran Quivira. With Villagra and his companions went the 
Fathers Fr. Martinez and Fr. Salazar, accompanied by the 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 235 

Alf^rez Casas and an escort of soldiers, with instructions to 
ask for and bring more priests from Mexico. Botii petitions 
were granted. Prom Mexico came Fatlier Escalona, as 
superior, and six priests whose names are not mentioned by 
either Villagra or Onate, and from Spain, the viceroy of 
Mexico received a decree ordering him to supply Onate with 
all he wanted and to furnish him, as far as possible, with 
troops, priests, funds, and any other thing Onate might be 
in need of. 

Disagreements Between the Colonists— Unhappy Outcome — Exposure 
Made by the Fathers. 

The departure of the emissaries and the priests of which 
we spoke in the foregoing chapter diminished the number 
of troops and colonists at San Gabriel, only 100 men being 
left with Onate, a small number to be sure, to follow up his 
voyages of discovery and conquest, wherefore Onate con- 
tented himself with waiting for the arrival of reinforcements 
which arrived the next year, 1600, employing his time in the 
interim, making trips to the neighboring mountains in 
search of minerals. His insatiable thirst for gold did not 
allow him to think of the welfare of the colony; he absolutely 
forgot it, causing thus great suffering among the Spaniards. 
The priests, the colonists and their families, and even the 
Indians themselves lacked all things necessary for the sup- 
port of life, but Onate did not pay any attention to their 
needs nor did he strive to give orders to relieve the critical 
situation of his people and the Indians. The priests never 
ceased to warn Onate not to be so cruel with the Indians, 
whom he illtreated, taking from them their food and cloth- 
ing and whatever belonged to them, in order to divide it 
between himself and his troops. All the efforts of the 
priests to give an impulse to agriculture and the develop- 
ment of the arts and occupations, their using all the means 
at their command to insure the prosperity of the colony, and 
for the purpose of continuing the settlement of other places 
were disregarded by Onate, for he was so enthused with 
the falsehoods that Jusepe (the Indian who escaped from the 
expedition of Humana, ante) told him about the Quivira, that 
his restlessness almost bordered on delirium as he did not 



•236 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

mind anything else, coming, at last, to the final resolve of 
undertaking the trip, against the entreaties of the priests, 
leaving them exposed to die of hunger oi' be killed by the 
Indians who would doubtless rise in insurrection the 
moment the soldiers were removed. 

Onate Sets Out for Quivira- Battle Fought. 

Atthebeginningof June 1601, Onate commenced his journey 
taking along two priests. Father Velasco and Father Vergara, 
Jusepe, and eighty soldiers. Concerning the precise route 
he took, little or nothing is known, as neither Torquemada, 
nor Posadas (Villagrd does not speak about this journey) 
neither do the old historians which the author of this work 
has been able to examine, give with precision the path 
followed by Onate. Modern historiographers, among them 
Davis, Prince and Salpointe, are inclined to believe that he 
followed the identical route followed by Coronado in the 
year 1541 (ante. Book First). However that may be, the 
author of this work prefers to adhere to what, regarding that 
voyage, Torquemado and Posada tell us for the reason that, as 
they were Franciscan priests, the author has no doubt that 
they based their accounts in documents which went to the 
archives of the order of Saint Francis from the hands of the 
Fathers, Velasco and Vergara. Nothing worthy of mention 
happened in the voyage except a battle between the Spaniards 
and the Escanjaque] Indians, neighbors to the Indians of 
Quivira in the precise place where years before, Humana 
and his comrades had been defeated. (Ante Book First.) 
The battle would never have taken place, had it not been 
provoked by singular coincide)ice. The Indians of Quivira, 
■on that occasion were at war with the Escanjaques. The 
Quiviras abandoned, on the arrival of the Spaniards at 
Quivira, their pueblos and placed themselves under the pro- 
tection of Onate. The Escanjaques took possession of the 
abandoned pueblos and were commencing to destroy them 
when Father Velasco attempted to interfere in order to pre- 
vent their destruction. The Escanjaques assaulted the 
priest and the Spaniards rushed to his defense thus preci- 
pitating one of the most disastrous battles of those times. 
The battle lasted an entire day, and the mortality of the 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO, 237 

Indians was such (1000 of them died) according to Posada, 
supra, that the Spaniards gave the place the name of "El 
llano de la Matanza," (The plain of the Massacre). As Onate 
did not find at Quivira the wealth he anticipated to meet 
with, he set out on his return trip arriving at San Gabriel 
about the middle of October, very much disgusted with the 
result of his voyage, a disgust which was changed into wrath 
when he heard that many colonists and some priests had 
gone back to Santa Barbara, and that the father commissary 
Fr. de Escalona had sent charges against him to his superiors. 

Charges Against Onate — Drastic Measures Taken by Him to Avenge 
Himself. 

The charges which Father Escalona proffered against 
Onate, recite in a pathetic and convincing language, the 
causes which brought about the abandonment of the colony 
by the soldiers and colonists which Onate had left there. 
The author having been unable to find in any of the histories 
of New Mexico, except inTornuemada's, copies of saidcharges 
resolved to lay before the reader, in the hope that it will be 
appreciated, the integral reproduction of so valuable a histo- 
rical document. The letter of statements follows: 

"^Letter of Statements." * 

"Jesus be in the saintly soul of Y, P. (your Paternity) and 
let him give and grant what this, the least of your children, 
desires. As the occasion has come of writing, from these 
provinces of New Mexico, and of giving an account to the 
Lord Viceroy and his audience of what has happened in this 
land, it is right that we should give it also to Y, P. for the 
duty is none the less. The reason for writing and sending 
messengers to the Lord Viceroy is, our father, to explain to 
him how all the people, or most of them, of this New Mexico 
are leaving, and going out of it, constrained, as they are by 
the great need in which they find themselves at present, on 
account of hunger and nakedness; by reason of the Indians 
having been so drained (of what they had) they are dying of 

*From Torquemada's "Indiana Vol. I. 671— and from Posadas. 

Not. 216 et seq. 



238 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

hunger because the governor and his captains have plund- 
ered their pueblos and taken from them all their corn which 
they had stored for six months, till they left them so desti- 
tute of grain, and in such necessity that, through sheer 
hunger, they mix cinders with I know not what wild seedlets, 
and that is what they eat; and if God had not provided that 
some private persons had planted a little irrigation wheat we 
should all have died. 

"It being now manifest that the year is precarious, and 
that we have had no rain in a long time, wherefore not many 
crops have been raised, and as in many of these pueblos no 
grain is harvested; and as the governor has refused to plant 
a community piece of land so that his captains and soldiers 
might have something to eat and that all Spaniards and In- 
dians might not perish, those of this place have agreed by 
common consent to go to peaceable lands, and go as far as 
Santa Barbara, and there wait for what the Lord Viceroy 
shall command them to do whether to go over somewhere 
else, or to return here helping them with some kind of succor 
or allow them to go and settle at Yndeje, which, is, they say, 
a paradise and rich in silver, or to go to the Valle del Aguila 
(Eagle's Valley) to discover the South Sea, and see if by that 
route, (which is the place where the ships of China come to 
inspect this land) they can better their condition with what 
(those ships) they bring from China. 

"Seeing, then, that all the laymen are leaving on account of 
what I have already referred, it became my imperative duty 
to allow the religious who were here, to go with them, for 
they asked (that leave) so earnestly that Y. P. will be able to 
see by their petition which they presented to me for that 
purpose with so many reasons and motives, which are strong 
enough to convince whoever considers them aright; and they 
do not go with the intent of leaving and abandoning this land 
altogether, but only constrained by necessity; for the lay- 
men go to Santa Barbara to wait for his Majesty's order, 
and also the religious, to what they may be commanded. 
That this place may not be left altogether desolate, I remain 
here with the Royal Alf^rez and a few other Spaniards await- 
ing for the orders that may be sent to us, for which we shall 
wait four or five months, the time the answer of those who 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OP NEW MEXICO. 239 

are going there for it, may delay (in coming) and to take the 
messages which touching this matter we send to his Lord- 
ship and Y. P. although we are in danger of loosing our lives 
on account of our number being so small and not having any 
fortress where we might intrench ourselves, nor wheat, nor 
corn to eat. And if within that time no advice comes to us, 
we shall go to the place where the army is going to, which 
is the point of Santa Barbara; wherefore I beseech Y. P. to 
send me your advice; and in behalf of all of us who here re- 
main we ask you to beg it of his Lordship, the Lord Viceroy; 
for otherwise it would seem that we are altogether aban- 
doned and left in the land. We remain here, and hope to re- 
ceive news from the governor, and from those who went 
with him, and of the Father, Fr. Francisco Velasco, and of 
our brother Fray Pedro de Vergara who went with him; for 
I should have gone on that voyage (as I wrote to you), but I 
confess that seeing things in this land so out of order and 
against Christianity, I did not dare make the journey; because 
I saw, that as it is, in matters we have here at present, it has 
been, and will be the same where they have gone and 
wherever they go. And these things I wanted told by some 
one else and not myself, for even if there were no famine, 
they are enough for the religious to go back or else live cru- 
citied. 

"The Fathers Fray Francisco de San Miguel, Fray Fran- 
cisco de Zamora, Fray Lope Izquierdo and Fray Gaston de 
Peralta, are the ones who are going now and I remain so as 
to go last; they go as chaplains of the arm.y and accompanying 
them on the road. 

"What I request from Y. P. is, that if no religious are to 
come back here, to order me what God may best inspire Y. 
P. with; for until now almost nothing is discovered of what- 
ever is said to exist here, and this is the reason to go forward 
to the north, or east or south; for from that City of Mexico 
down to this point where we are, we have walked 400 leagues, 
and stock has been brought, and other things with great 
trouble, and to leave it now all to be lost seems a very hard 
thing (to do); and, in my view, it would displease the King if 
we should leave here against our conscience, especially, some 
baptized souls both of adults and children; nor would it even 



240 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

belit any other who should sustain him in justice and doc- 
trine giving him the possession of these pueblos. Y. P. will 
pardon the prolixity, which, in order to give account from 
lands so far off of what there is in them, especially when it is 
a matter of honor, conscience and the salvation of souls, all 
cannot be said in a few words. May our Lord God lead you^ 
as it may please best his divine majesty, and let Him guard 
Y, P. Prom this convent of San Gabriel of New Mexico, on 
the first of October, one thousand six hundred and one years. 
Your least child and subject of Y. P. 

Fray Juan Escalona." 

From what the reader has read in the statements of Fr. 
Escalona, he must have been convinced that the defenseless 
Indians could not expect anything from the soldiers and 
colonists, and that only the priests took any interest in 
aleviatmg their painful situation. The struggle between the 
priests and Onate, and his soldiers, because of the defense of 
the poor Indians by the former, and because of the great 
efforts of the latter to reduce them to a most shameless 
slavery was being accentuated more and more every day till 
it reached the point where they were unable to stand so much 
injustice. The tyranny of Onate was not confined now to the 
Indians only, but he also attempted to treat the priests with 
equal despotism, but as at that period, the ecclesiastical laws 
were obeyed more than the military, Onate was unable to 
satiate his vengeance on the priests. 

To punish the deserters, Onate declared them traitors and 
sentenced to death those who should not come back. He sent 
Don Vicente Zaldivar to Mexico and to Spain to inform the 
Viceroy and King of what occurred. At Santa Barbara, 
Zaldivar was able, by means of cruelty and threats to induce 
some of the colonists to return to New Mexico, but not all 
returned, Onate being thus left with his desires of punishing^. 
them unsatisfied. 

The priests did not cease from exposing Onate and his 
soldiers on account of the bad treatment they gave the 
Indians, and so, Onate was again denounced by Father Fr. 
Fraacisco de San Miguel who, in a letter written at Santa 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 241 

Barbara on the 29th of February, 1602, when he learned of 
the object of Zaldivar's visit to Mexico, wrote to his superior 
the following: 

''Letter/' 

"Jesus give to Y. P. strength and his Divine Grace, It is 
fifteen days since I wrote to Y. P. giving an account of our 
arrival at this point of Santa Barbara, and twelve days after 
we arrived, the aide de camp of Don Juan Oliate, the 
Governor, reached here also in pursuit of these captains and 
poor people who are here, the governor having already sen- 
tenced them to have their heads chopped off, and to visit on 
them great cruelties on account of the great services they 
have rendered both to God and to his majesty, in spending 
their property, and serving personally they, and their wives, 
and children, and servants, for all did this, and went, by 
turns, in this Tragico — comedy, the men serving the 
governor as companions; the w^omen in cooking his meals, 
the children entertaining him; and the servants and rest of 
the people in serving him; and even the friars in adoring 
him; and the case is to the point (to say) that we already did 
not nnd place nor hour for the security of our lives, property, 
and honor. Sometimes (when I was superior) he com- 
manded me to take some religious from their posts, and 
places where they were (without any other pretext than his 
pleasure) with the understanding that if I didn't do it, he 
would do it; and it is certain that those who have been in that 
land have given proof of their religion; and this is certain 
that the land of itself is not very habitable; and being there 
governed by the one who now governs, it is not possible to live 
in it; and for these and millions of other reasons, it was not 
only fitting but necessary to get out of it, and this for the 
relief of the natives, the governor, and the Spaniards that 
remain there, because he cannot give sustenance but to very 
few people with the ordinary he now has; and the governor 
who in order not to fall from his state goes about with a 
thousand lies, tricks, and dissemblings, and sending souls 
to hell by the thousands and doing things that are not 
worthy to be heard by Christians with false and treacherous 



242 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

appearances; and so, blessed is he who can separate himself 
from such deals, because, although it may not be proper for 
us to deal with him publicly, there is no reason why Y. P. 
should not be advised of it. 

"The governor has made some sallies, all at the expense of 
the religious and the natives as a condition sine qua non; for 
he could not otherwise have made any, because he is very 
poor, and in all of them he has made horrible massacres of 
Indians, and great butcheries and shedding of human blood, 
thefts and plunders, which he has made: I pray to God to 
grant him the grace to do pennance for all his misdeeds in 
this life. These poor people are afflicted; and the aide de 
camp carries in his informations a thousand lies and a 
thousand false oaths, for those who are in New Mexico are 
so oppressed that they cannot do but what the governor 
com^nands, or what they know to be his pleasure, and in the 
end everything will have to come to light, and the truth will 
be known; and because Fathers Zamora and Lugo, who are 
trustworthy witnesses, have gone there, information can be 
taken from them concerning everything. I don't say any 
more in this, etc. Santa Barbara, the 29th of February, in 
the year 1602." 

In Mexico, Zaldivar made the greatest efforts to contradict 
the charges of the Fathers against his uncle (the reader will 
recollect that Oilate was Zaldivar's uncle) in order to fix 
more firmly his prestige as conqueror. Viceroy Monterey, 
however, did not feel inclined to grant all that was asked for 
Onate, and he so told the King in a report which Zaldivar 
himself carried to Spain. In Spain, Zaldivar seems to have 
had better success, for he obtained from the King the 
appointment of his uncle as Adelantado, and also a decree 
declaring Onate and all those who had taken a part in the 
conquest with him as hijosdalgos (a title which is equivalent 
to that of a nobleman,) as will be seen by the decree which 
we give below. After the return of Zaldivar, Onate received 
reinforcements and other succors which he and the other 
Spaniards needed badly . At the same time other Franciscan 
Fathers came the next year, 1604, at the beginning of the 
year. The decree referred to follows: 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 243 

Royal Decree Which Acknowledges the Capitulation of That Province 
and the Prerogatives of Its Settlers. 

Don Felipe, by the grace of God, King of Castile, of Leon 
etc. Whereas the viceroy, Don Luis de Velasco, in virtue of 
a decree "of the King, my lord, who in glory be, took contract 
and capitulation'' with Don Juan de Onate, concerning the 
discovery, pacification and people of New Mexico, which Hes 
in New Spain; and, among other things, granted him what is 
contained in one of the chapters of the instructions about new^ 
discoveries and settlements of the Indies which is of the 
following tenor: 

"To those who bound themselves to make the said settle- 
ments, and had it peopled, and fulfilled their contract: In 
order to honor their persons and their descendants, and that 
from them, as first settlers, laudable remembrance may 
remain; we make them hijosdalgos of well known mansion, 
them and their legitimate descendants, in order that in the 
pueblo they may settle and any other part of the Indies, they 
be hijosdalgos and persons of noble lineage and well known 
mansion; and as such may be known, had, and held, and 
enjoy all honors and pre-eminences; and that they may do 
all things that all hijosdalgos and knights of the kingdoms of 
Castile, according to the statutes, laws and customs of Spain, 
may and should do, etc., etc. The general (rules) follow and 
it closes. 'I wish and it is my will that it have the force of 
law as if it were done and promulgated in the courts: Let it 
be heralded in all parts and places that may be fit to. Given 
at San Lorenzo on the 8th day of July in the year 1602. — I, 
the King. — Attorney Laguna. — Attorney Armenteras. — Dr. 
Eugenio de Salazar, — Attorney Banavente de Benavides. — 
Attorney Luis Salcedo. — ' By command of the King. — Juan 
de Ibarra. — Registered.— Gabriel de Ochoa. — By the Chan- 
cellor: Sebastian de la Vega.— Note: — The auto (act) of 
obedience is made by the royal agreement of Mexico, dated 
the 20th of June, 1604. It is recorded in the books of that 
audience folio 305 of the one that begins in 1601. The copy of 
the original royal decrees from 1570 to 1624, pages 49."' * 

*Pino; Not. Historicas. 



244 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Onate Visits the South Sea — End of His Administration. 

Onate delayed a long while before he could raise his 
spirits above the languor which had taken possession of his 
soul, both on account of his disappointment in the discov- 
ery of Quivira's fabulous riches, and because of the ruin 
and desolation, he found at San Gabriel on his return from 
his fruitless voyage. He determined once more to try his 
fortune by giving a happy climax to his discoveries reahzing 
there by the ideal which should immortalize his name; the 
discovery of the South Sea. Ofiate's valor was equal if not 
superior, to that of his predecessors. His was the resourceful 
faculty of finding, even in difficult circumstances, adequate 
expedients for the purpose of emerging with success from 
any emergency. He saw that by recapturing the good will 
and support of the priests all the obtacles in his way would 
be removed. He therefore, addressed himself to the New 
Commissary, Pr. Francisco de Escobar, successor to Fr. de 
Velasco, who had succeeded Fr. Escalona, soliciting the 
support which he desired from the priests. Father Esc6bar 
had come to New Mexico with six more religious, after 
Zaldivar had returned from Spain, the primitive spirit of 
concord and harmony between Onate and the Franciscan 
priest having at that date been renewed, according to Tor- 
quemada, who says: 

"Six religious went over, with Father Francisco Escobar 
as their commissary, as well as of those who were there. The 
commission went to Father Fr. Francisco de Velasco who was 
there for one year — a man of approved life and versed in 
letters, on account of causes that concurred (for that purpose): 
and the commission went to the new commissary who was 
going from here to so comply, taking people who w^ent as 
helpmates to do what he might see fit both as to garrison 
and as an entry. He complied very well, and the Viceroy and 
the Order of Franciscans were freed from the uneasiness 
caused by the disagreement and bad arrangement of that 
Entry."* 

* Onate was not aware of the fact that Melchor Diaz had already 
discovered the Gulf of California as the reader has read in chajj. 5, 
Book 1 of this work— The Author. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 245 

Having received the instructions given him by their 
superiors, Fr. Escobar did not hesitate to accede to entreaties 
of Onate offering himself as one of his companions. The 
spontaneous, frank and friendly co-operation of Father Fr. 
Escobar tilled Onate's heart with a feeling of deep gratitude 
towards the priests, and a sincere regret of having treated 
them with disrespect and rigor in past occasions giving 
proof of his sincerity by approving the dispositions made 
by Father Escobar. Without loss of time the preparations 
were begun, everything being in complete readiness by the 
7th day of October (1604), a day when he set out on the journey 
with thirty soldiers and the Fathers Fr. Francisco Esc6bar, 
and Fr. San Buena Ventura. On his way, Onate visited the 
Pueblos of the provinces of Moqui, Acoraa, and Zuni follow- 
ing the same route that had been followed, by Don Garcia 
Lopez de Cdrdenas, Capt. Melgosa, Juan Gaberas and the 
twelve soldiers sent by Coronado thirty years before for the 
purpose of discovering the Colorado River. Along his way 
Onate crossed the little "Colorado River" or "Coloradito,"' 
Onate himself having been the man who gave said river that 
name on account of the reddish color of its water. In like 
manner Onate gave the name of "Rio Grande de Buena Es- 
peranza"' to the river we know today by the name of the "Rio 
Colorado Grande.'" 

After several journeys and many sufferings, and after 
having traveled through many nations of barbarous Indians, 
Onate arrived on the 23rd of January in the year 1605 to the 
Rio Colorado to which he gave the name already mentioned. 
He camped there until the 25th, following, on that day, the 
course of the river downwards to its mouth on the Gulf of 
California. He found a' bay so ample that, according to 
Onate "1000 vessels could anchor on it.'" As the day of his 
arrival there was St. PauTs day, Onate, at the suggestion of 
Father Escobar, gave the bay the name of "Puerto de la 
Conversion de San Pablo." * 

The best and most authentic narrative of this voyage is 
given to us by Father Fray Alonzo de Paredes Posadas, in 
an account given to the King in the year 1685 about the 

* Bet. Ariz, and N. Mex. 136. 



246 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO, 

happenings in New Mexico. Referring to the voyage of which 
we have been treating Father Posadas, says: 

Date of the Founding of Santa Fe Correctly Given. 

"The villa of Santa Fe, center of New Mexico, is at 37 
degrees in a straight line south, having the sea on the west, 
at a distance of 200 leagues. It was discovered in the year 
1605 by the Adelantado Juan de Onate, carrying with him 
some soldiers and religious of my seraphic religion, and as 
president, the preacher, Fr. Francisco Escalon, and as guide 
of his journey a river which they call the Colorado Grande, 
which has its source in the mountains and sierras, which 
are on the northern part of that villa, at 28 degrees, having 
its torrents (course) directly to the west, and flows into the 
sea by the bay, that is in the interior, which they call Cali- 
fornia, by whose banks Indians of many nations visited the 
Adelantado, Don Juan de Oiiate, among whom, two of them 
who said they were neighbors of Teguayo, and seeing him 
eat on a silver service, informed him that in their land there 
was a great deal of that metal."* 

Onate became satisfied with the discovery of the gulf, 
returning next to San Gabriel, and reaching that point 
August 25, 1605, after having suffered such hunger that they 
had bo eat the flesh of their horses. What Onate did in New 
Mexico after 1605 or who was his successor is not known 
with certainty. 

All the historians agree that between the years 1605 and 
1608 (a year in which it is well proved) he ceased to be gov- 
ernor, his sucjcessor being, according to Bancroft, Don 
Pedro de Peralta. \ The author of this work is of the opinion 
that Onate acted as governor until the year 1608, reaching 
that conclusion after a mature examination of the works of 
Ventacur, Shea, Gregg, Davis, Prince, Bancroft, Pino, 
Escudero, Salpointe, Barreiru and others; and that, with the 
co-operation of the priests (the real conquerors), Onate dedi- 
cated those two last years of his administration to the devel- 
opment of the industries and the arts. The author has 

*"Ralaci6n" of Father Posadas to the King- of Spain. 
tBacft. Ariz. & New Mex. 157. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 247 

reached this conclusion basing his belief upon what Barreiro 
says on that matter, whose opinion, in the judgment of this 
author, adjusts itself better with the reasonable solution of 
the enigmatical question. The attorney, Don Antonia 
Barriero, was assessor of New Mexico in the year 1831, and 
it is reasonable to suppose that, as he was a man of letters,, 
when he wrote his "Ojeadasobre Nuevo Mejico,'" printed in, 
Puebla in the year 1832, he had at his command trustworthy 
data for his important work. Speaking of Don Juan Onate^ 
Barreiro says: 

"And owing to the good procedure of Don Juan Onate, in 
order to encourage him in this purpose. His Majesty the 
King, Philip II (who is in glory) honored him on February 
7th 1602, with the title of Adelantado of these provinces (he 
being Governor and Captain General in them) for himself, his 
son, or heir. And in the year 1608 His Majesty provided 
another governor with a salary of two thousand ducats and 
he resides at the Villa of Santa Fe, capital of this Kingdom 



)'* 



The Villa of Santa Fe Again. 

It is equally certain, as said (ante chapt. 5) that Onate was 
the founder of Santa Fe. Upon that point there is no disa- 
greement among the authors referred to although there is. 
some in regard to the precise date of its foundation. This 
author believes that that happened immediately after Onate's 
return from the Gulf of California in April 1605, for we have 
already seen that, before that voyage took place, the 
Spaniards already talked of building the "City of San 
Francisco." There is, then, no doubt that Onate founded the 
villa of Santa Fe between the year 1605 and 1606 if Fr. 
Posadas is correct (ante). As Barreiro also has told it to us, 
(ante) Santa Fe was already mentioned as the place of his 
residence in 1608. f Here ends the second book of this work. 

*Barreiro's Ojeada, p. 7. 

fNoTE— There are persons who in newspaper articles affirm that 
Santa Fe was founded in 1540 or 1543, by Fray Juan dePadilla. These 
writers, evidently, never saw the history of the voyag-e of Coronado 
written by Coronado himself and by Cardenas. The reader will recol- 
lect to have read in the foreg-oing chapters of this work the account 
itself of Coronado and that of Cardenas in both of which is established 



248 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

In the next book we shall treat of all that occurred between 
the years 1608 and 1703. 

the fact beyond all conjecture that Tiguex was situated on the western 
bank of the Rio Grande in the neighborhood of the Town of Bernalillo, 
with the only difference that Bernalillo is on the eastern bank of said 
river. This is confirmed by the account of Cdrdenas in regard to the 
efforts the Indians made, when besieged, to escape — a thing- they could 
not accomplish because the Rio Grande was wholly closed with ice, those 
of the Indians who attempted to cross the river by breaking the ice 
having been drowned. The same is equally proved by what Fr. Posa- 
das and Barreiro said in the paragraphs preceding this page, the para- 
graph about the Villa of Santa F6, in which it is affirmed that Onate's 
successor (Peralta) came in 1608 to reside in Santa F^. See also Fr. 
Benavides' relation on location of Tiguex, already given to the reader 
(ante).— The Author. 



BOOK III. 

IN WHICH THE HISTORY IS GIVEN OF ALL THE EVENTS 
BETWEEN THE YEARS 1608 AND 1703. 



CHAPTER 1. 

The New Governor Don Pedro Peralta Assumes the Reins of Govern- 
ment — Fr. Alonzo Peinado Arrives as Commissary, of the Fran- 
ciscans, and as Successor to Father Fr. Escobar — Fr. Estevan 
Perea [Succeeds Fr. Alonzo Peinado — Not Known Whether or 
Not Don Pedro Peralta Governed Until 1626 — Nor is it Known 
Who Were His Successors — New Difficulties Arise Between 
Political and Religious Authorities —Father Fr. Geronimo de 
Zarate Salmeron Relieves Fr. Estevan Perea — Indian Conversions 
Continue — The Spanish Settlements Increase — New Mexico is 
Elevated to the Dignity of Custodia, and is Assigned to Father 
Benavides 'as First Custodio — New Mexico Gets Another Gov- 
ernor — History of New Mexico by Fr. Benavides — Names of the 
Governors. 

1608-1703. 



We have already seen that in 1608, Don Pedro Peralta came 
to New Mexico as successor to Onate, but nothing is known 
respecting the whereabouts of Onate thereafter, although 
some authors have ventured conjectural opinions about it; 
but, as in matters of history, only facts should be set down, 
the author of this work has not been desirous of amusing the 
reader with mere stories or unfounded suppositions. Let us 
then leave Onate in the place where, for the last time, he 
appears as a real figure in the pages of history, drawing the 
veil over those remote and confused epochs. 

The Franciscan Fathers had converted about 8000 Indians 
between the years 1598 and 1608 or an average of eight hun- 
dred Indians a year, and were teaching reading and writing 
to a goodly number of them when the new Governor Peralta, 
and the new Commissary, Father Peinado, came. With Father 
Peinado nine fathers came, the number of missionaries in- 



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, V. La QUE >Qn « 



t 



1 Auv ,i5^o in \ii. 



M) 



"EXPOSICION" Of Kev. A. S. Martinez to President Santa Ana recommending the 
passage of a law to place the tribes of wild Indians in New Mexico in reservations and 
under control of the central government. Printed in Taos, N. M., in 1843, in the first and 
only printing press in New Mexico, which had been brought in 1835 l)y Father Martinez 
from Old Mexico. This priceless document contains 14 pages, in pamphlet form, of 
6x7K Inches. Same is in my possession. The Author. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 251 

creasing with their arrival and with the missionaries, the 
number of conversions, so that by the year 1617 the number 
of Indian converts reached up to fourteen thousand and the 
number of churches and convents was eleven. The number 
of settlers diminished more and more every year. In 1617 
only 47 men among soldiers and settlers with their respective 
families could be counted, a circumstance which corroborates, 
with clear evidence, the great benefit redounding in favor of 
the Indians from the benevolent conduct of the priests. 

The success of the Fathers in the christianization and paci- 
fication of the Indians was not contemplated fondly by the 
military; almost daily difficulties arose between the two fac- 
tions, reaching in 1620 to the extreme of a serious outbreak 
between the civil and ecclesiastical authorities. The difficul- 
ties came to a close by the excommunication of the governor 
through a decree in form of an anathema pronounced against 
him by Fr. Alonzo Peinado. The cruelty and oppression 
with which the governor treated the Indians had sown 
throughout all the pueblos in secret, a deadly hatred against 
the Spaniards, a hatred, which even against the priests was 
commencing to take root. The Governor on his part charged 
the Fathers with their being the original cause of the dissatis- 
faction that was noted in the spirit of the Indians, claiming, 
at the same time, that his was the power of making the 
appointments of the Indians who should govern the pueblos; 
the priests denied that the governor had any such authority 
and declared that the Indians ought to be given, exclusively, 
the power to appoint their own officials as they had done it 
to that date. The accriminations and recriminations of 
both bands were finally carried over to the superior authority 
at Mexico, resulting from it a severe reprimand to the gov- 
ernor by the viceroy, and to Father Peinado by the Father 
Superior of the order of Franciscan Fathers, and the removal 
of both. 

A New Governor, and New Commissary are sent over. 

The superior ecclesiastical authority thought that, in behalf 
of peace, the condition of the missions in New Mexico 
demanded a radical change, and the political authority was 
of the same opinion with respect to civil government there 



252 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

also; consequently both jurisdictions were changed. The 
ecclesiastical jurisdiction sent Father Ger6nimo Zarate 
Salmeron, the wise preacher and erudite historian, who 
remained from 1621 to 1626 in the province of Jemes almost 
exclusively; he baptized during those five or six years, 
according to his own narrative, 6,566 Indians, and wrote in 
the Indian language a work entitled "Doctrina'"* which he 
put to print in Mexico, the year he was relieved from the 
charge of commissary, because the province of New Mexico 
had been erected into a "Custodia" under the name and title 
of "Custodia de la conversi6n de San Pablo,"" and father Pr, 
Benavides had come to govern it on that same year with 20 
additional fathers. 

New Governor. 

Peralta acted as governor to the close of the year 1620, 
that is, at least, what can be stated as a certainty, since 
history does not give the name of the other governor between 
the years 1608 and 1620. It is known with certainty that in 
the beginning of the year 1621 there came as Governor Don 
Felipe Zotylo who governed the province to the year 1629, 
in which he was succeeded by Don Manuel de Silva. 
Between Fr. Benavides and Governor Zotylo the most com- 
plete harmony reigned with marked benefit for the Indians 
and Spaniards who dedicated themselves with energy to the 
prosecution of the industries which their limited means 
allowed them to develop. Agriculture was made more gen- 
eral; all the Indian pueblos engaged completely in the culti- 
vation of their lands, the raising of stock, and in the appren- 
ticeship of the arts and occupations, everything breathed 
tranquility, progress, and good fellowship. The Spanish 
colonies were in lack of artificers, farming implements and 
many other things necessary for their development. The 
mining industry had become one of the principal occupations 
but there was a lack of operatives. The ecclesiastical branch 
was also quite decimated, for by the year 1626 only nineteen 
of the religious profession had remained, embracing priests 
and friars (lay brothers). In that year Father Benavides 

*Zarate Salmeron "s "Relaciones.'' 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 253 

was called to Mexico, and there he ^ave an account of the 
condition of his missions, stating that by that date more 
than 86,000 Indians had been baptized, and that forty three 
temples had been built. Father Benavides did not return to 
New Mexico, having been sent to Spain by his superiors, 
that he might give in person an account to the King of what 
he knew about New Mexico, but father Tomas Manso with 
thirty more priests came in his stead. 

Fr. Benavides in Spain. 

At the beginning of the year 1630 Father Fr. Alonzo Bena- 
vides went to Spain to make a report in person before the 
King of what he had given, in the shape of a narrative in 1826, 
to his superior. He was introduced to the King by Fr. Juan 
de Santander, Commissary General of the Indies. The account 
given by Fr. Benavides to the King, even if it lacks much to 
be desired, is of an incalculable historical value, because it is 
the first and only history written and published 32 years 
after the conquest by Oiiate, and because it was, like that 
of Villagra, written by a writer who, from his own experience 
and personal observation knew what he was saying. Despite 
the fact that it was printed in Madrid in 1630, and reprinted 
in Mexico in 1889, none of the authors who have written about 
New Mexico had the opportunity of reading and consulting 
it. Salpointe refers to it but says that what he knows about 
it is from the translation of a work written in French; a work 
not based on exact knowledge, since it asserts that Benavi- 
des did not go to Spain, but that he sent his narrative to 
Father Santander. The other authors state the same thing 
except Bancroft who, with admirable candor, admits never 
to have seen so important a work, and is however, the one 
who gives the most correct conclusions, about its contents. 
The author of this work was able, after very long and expen- 
sive researches, to find it, and because he considers it of 
great value to history, has had it reproduced as the first 
appendix to this work, thus giving to future generations one 
of the main fountain heads whence proceeds the true history 
of New Mexico, recommending to the reader at the same time, 
that the appendix be read with the care and attention the 
consideration of such a meritorious work demands. 



2M ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

The author of this work considers himself duty bound to 
make a comment or two on said memorial of Father Bena- 
vides, by giving to his readers one or two of the points which 
Father Benavides elucidates, that he may thus understand 
better said memorial (appendix first) and to better appre- 
ciate its merits. The historical picture drawn by Fr. de 
Benavides could not be more interesting if the almost insuper- 
able obstacles that had to be overcome are taken into account. 

According to Fr. Benavides, there were in the year 1630 
fifty religious persons scattered among the Pueblo Indians 
and the savage tribes; more than seventy thousand had 
already been converted to Christianity in the ninety pueblos 
known in New Mexico, these pueblos were formed in groups 
and divided in 25 missions with a school and church to each 
pueblo. For the support of the political, military and 
ecclesiastical governments an annual tribute was collected 
from the people which consisted of a part of what was har- 
vested and a part of the increase of stock, cattle and sheep. 
The most important Spanish colony was the Villa of Santa 
Fe, the seat of government, with a population of 250 Spaniards 
and their respective families. 

Concerning Quivira, Father Benavides gives us a descrip- 
tion of its riches, inhabitants, latitude and topography. The 
most pathetic part of the narrative is the vivid picture he 
gives of the labors and sutferingsof the priests, himself among 
them, who were always ready to sacrifice their own lives, if 
by doing so, they could redeem but a single soul, as many 
of them did, sealing with their blood, as real martyrs, the 
truth of the holy doctrine of the crucified God. From what 
we are going to reproduce the reader will be convinced that 
the religious, and they alone, were the true conquerors and 
benefactors of the Indians. Let us hear Father Benavides: 

"It may well be inferred from all that is said above, how 
lucid are the toils and pilgrimages of my Father St. Francis, 
in the service of God our Lord, for not only have they 
destroyed the empire of Satan and saved those souls which 
he (the devil) so undisputedly enjoyed, but have demolished 
idolatry and the worship to the devil, the Lord God Creator of 
all things is alone adored; and where nothing appeared but 
dens of idolatry, today the religious have done so much and 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 255 

with such care, that in order to accomplish that, they despoil 
themselves of what your Majesty gives them for their suste- 
nance and raiment. Their continuous occupation is that of 
Martha and Maria; recurring, like Martha, to active life, 
curing the sick and feeding the poor and needy; causing the 
fields to be planted, and growing stock, and, together with 
this, breaking lands for the Indians who do not live in settle- 
ments, and after building them a house and the entire pueblo, 
and plowed and sown their lands, and given them all that is 
necessary for those first months they bring them to live there 
like reasonable beings, where they are taught to recite the 
Christian doctrine, and are taught good customs; in like man- 
ner they teach the boys how to read and write and sing, and 
the Lord is to be praised at seeing, in so short a time, so many 
chapels with organ singing; in the same way they are taught 
all the occupations for human utility, such as tailoring, 
shoemaking, carpentry, blacksmithing and other things 
in learning which they are very skilfull; and this depends on 
the solicitude and care of the religious, for should he be 
missed, all this harmony and all the political life in which they 
are trained in our style would cease. Neither do they (the 
religious) fail, like Mary, in contemplative life which is the 
monastic state that they have professed; for with the many 
exterior occupations in the administrations of the sacraments 
they have no rest in going from pueblo to pueblo, and there 
is not a religious who has not four or five pueblos under his 
charge; they so live, that they seem to be in a community, 
for matins never fail at midnight and the other hours, and 
high mass always in time; and the convents are in so great a 
harmony that they look more like sanctuaries than the houses 
of single friars; and with such continuous occupations, fast- 
ings never fail, practicing even the lents of the blessed, and 
many other spiritual exercises with which they greatly edify 
both the Spaniards and Indians who respect them as if they 
were angels. I have wished to touch, en pass ant, upon this 
matter, refraining from stating, many other things which I 
might say, with the sole purpose that your Majesty may 
know the quality and virtue of those, your chaplains, who 
with such gratitude, love and good will recommend your 
Majesty to God in that secluded spot, and in that primitive 



256 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OP NEW MEXICO. 

church where Our Lord works so many wonders and to which 
your Majesty must render favor and assistance, both, on 
account of the duty imposed upon your Majesty by thechurcli 
in the bull of Alexander VI when, in the name of God, he gave 
you these kingdoms only for the care and nourishing there 
needed by our holy Catholic faith and for the conversion of 
so many souls, as well as, on account of the many mercies 
which God our Lord grants your Majesty there in giving you 
so many riches as we have discovered in the province of the 
Piros, (Socorro county), as I have said, and in this kingdom 
of Quivira and Aixaos; and all that is needed to enjoy all that 
by the monarchy is to people the ports through which such 
riches may be taken out, and that there be some to work 
them out; for certain it is that the plates of silver will not 
come out of the mines ready made, but money must be 
expended to take them home. It is sufficient that God our 
Lord show unto our eyes the rich metals and the ports 
through which we may enjoy them.'" * 

Nothing sensational, or of sufticient importance occurred 
for several years after. The colonies of Spaniards increased 
in the course of years. The industries, the arts and occupa- 
tions expanded and developed in proportion to the growth of 
the population. In spite, however, of the alluring perspective, 
the flame of vengeance blazed at the bottom of the hearts of 
the Indians. From generation to generation the cruelties of 
the Spanish generals were transmitted among them — com- 
mencing from the shocking sacrifice made by Cardenas and 
Coronado in 1540 in the province of Tiguex (ante Book I) and 
bursting, subsequently, in the sombre uprising of 1680 con- 
cerning which we shall treat in the next chapter. 

Governors from 1629 to 1680. 

It is proper that the reader know the names of the gover- 
nors in whose hands were the reins of government between 
the years 1629, when Don Felipe Zotylo left the post, to 1679 
when Otermin became the incumbent. Zotylo was succeeded 
by Manuel Silva, and Silva by Don Fernando de Arguella 
(1640). Don Luis de Rosas assassinated in 1642 succeeded 

* See appendix first of this work. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 257 

A rguello (1641-2) Valdez came next, and after him Pacheco 
de Heredia in (1644). In 1645 Arguello became again governor. 
Luis de Guzman to 1650; Ugarte and La Concha in 1650; Don 
Juan de Samaniego in 1653; Don Enrique Avila y Pacheco, in 
1653; Don Bernardo Lopez de Mendizabal, in 1660; Diego de 
Penaloza Briceno from 1661 to 1664. Penaloza was followed 
by Governors Fernando de Villa Nueva, Juande Medranoand 
Don Juan Miranda, but the respective dates of their admin- 
istrations have never been learned with certainty that being 
the reason why so little can be said about them. Juan Fran- 
cisco Trevino from 1675 to 1679; Antonio de Otermin from 
1679 to 1683. Otermin acted as governor a little over a year, 
although, in fact, he was governor until the year 1683. As it 
was during his administration (in the year 1680) that the 
historic uprising occurred, which gave, as a sequel, the expul- 
sion of the Spaniards, and the total loss of the results 
acquired by Onate and his successors. This chapter closes 
with what the reader has already read regarding the more 
salient events between the years 1608 and 1640, in order to 
begin the next one with the narration of other events, and the 
account of the retreat of Otermin. 



CHAPTER IL 



Murder of Fathers Arvide and Letrado and Poisoning of Father Porras 
— Assassination of Governor Rosas — Penaloza and the Priests — 
Voyage of Pefialoza to Mexico — He is punished for Blaspheming — 
His Voyage to France and England — Betrays his Sovereign — Up- 
rising of the Indians- 



1640-1680. 



In the year 1632 Father Pray Arvide was ^iven missions 
in the province of Zuni, and Fathers Letrado and Porras in 
the province of Moqui, places in which the Franciscans had 
several convents and some schools, the fathers referred to 
being in charge of them. At that period the discontent 
among the Indians had become general but the Spaniards 
suspected nothing. The insubordination of the Indians 
became more acute on account of the scandals which contin- 
ually occurred in the settlements of the Spaniards, between 
the ecclesiastical and political tribunals. When the Indians 
saw that the strife between the priests and the government 
was an every day occu rrence, they began to treat the priests and 
officials with indifference and contempt, which caused the 
priests to reprimand them without obtaining the results de- 
sired. Thus it was that because the priests attempted to up- 
braid the Indians, Fathers Arvide and Letrado were murdered 
in the vicinity of the pueblo of Zuiii towards the close of 1632; 
and at the beginning of the year following, the Indians of 
Moqui poisoned Father Porras. The civil authorities allowed 
the guilty Indians to go without punishment not even taking 
notice of the deaths of the said fathers, nor of the others who 
had been previously assassinated by the Indians in other 
places, from which indifference resulted, ten years later, a 
serious break between Governor Rosas and the priests — a 
break which ended first in the assassination of Rosas, and 
culminated in the general uprising of the Indians in 1680, 
causing the exit of the Spaniards, as will be shown in the 
next chapter. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 259 

Death of Governor Luis Rosas- 

Criminations and recriminatioDs between the Governor 
and the priests were the order of the day in detriment of the 
Spanish and Indian settlements. The governor accused the 
fathers of having constituted themselves as ecclesiastical 
judges, arrogating to themselves extraordinary powers; of 
being themselves the cause of the general discontent among 
the Indians, and of being the initiators of the sedition that 
was being generally diffused. From so perilous a situation 
the result was the tragic death of Governor Rosas in 1642. We 
call it a tragic death because it was such, in fact, but it is 
known that the crime was not consummated through motives 
directly or indirectly related with the difficulties between the 
priests and Rosas, but rather on account of the immoral 
conduct of Rosas,* which the priests held up to the light in 
Mexico, when they were charged with being the promoters 
of the troubles and unrest in New Mexico. The author 
believes it improper because the event was of a private 
character and highly scandalous, to give it in detail and that 
it will be best for history -not to have its pages stained by 
consigning in them incidents of such a nature. 

Administration of Pefialoza. 

The successors of Governor Luis Rosas were Valdez 
Heredia Arguello, (re-appointed as we have said before) 
Ugarte, Concha, Samaniego, Pacheco and Mendizabal, all of 
them having governed alternately, from 1642 to 1660, to the 
end of the year and date on which Penaloza assumed the gov- 
ernment. Concerning the events that happened between the 
epochs of 1640 and 1660, history tells us nothing, from which 
the author gathers that nothing happened of serious moment, 
for otherwise, the historians of those times would have 
recorded it in history. Let us see about Penaloza: 

That personage was sent to New Mexico as successor to 
Mendizabal, who had been obliged to resign the post of Gov- 
ernor because the father Custodio of New Mexico had 
proffered, and proved, serious charges against him towards 
the close of 1660. Penaloza assumed the command in the 

* Bancroft Ariz., & New Mex. 167. 



260 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

year 1661 and acted as such until 1664, crowning his adminis- 
tration with a great scandal. He was an enemy of truth, 
hated justice and despised virtue. He was a hyprocite, a 
coward, a traitor, and consequently a liar, as Bancroft calls 
him.* During the three years and few months of his ad- 
ministration he did nothing to justify an impartial writer in 
uttering a single word to his credit. The first thing he did 
was to constitute himself a real dictator; he ignored the rights 
of the church; imposed upon the Indians unbearable punish- 
ments, collecting from them exhorbitant contributions, and 
obhging them to work in the mines without just compen- 
sation. The Father Custodio did not approve of^the conduct of 
Penaloza. He sent to Mexico specified charges against him, 
which resulted not only in his removal, but in being called to 
Mexico in 1665 where he was tried and the charges against 
him proved. He was sentenced to be carried about the 
streets of the City of Mexico with uncovered head and a 
burning taper in his hands. So it is narrated by the histo- 
rians Robles, Alaman and Zaraacois. f 

Treachery of Penaloza. 

From Mexico Penaloza started for France and England in 
1671, with the intention of organizing an army to possess 
himself of New Mexico. He used as incentives of persuasion 
the legends he had composed about the Grand Quivira and 
its fabulous riches, for which purpose he had stolen from 
the Archives at Santa F6, the copy of the notes which Onate 
had made about bis voyage to Quivira (ante) and by changing 
dates and names he had it published in French and English, 
himself appearing as the hero of that famous voyage. ;j: He 
completely failed in his criminal attempts, being sunk in 
extreme poverty, and died as the most miserable of criminals 
in the year 1687, in England among the poor and helpless. 

Penaloza was succeeded by Don Fernando de Villanueva 

* Bancroft Arizona and New Mexico . 

t Bancroft Arizona and New Mexico. 

+ Prince affirms in liis "History of New Mexico" that Penaloza 
did in effect make that voyage to Quivira; but that assertion is a his- 
torical error which Prince did not find out until long after he had 
published his said work. So he stated it to me.— The Author. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OP NEW MEXICO. 261 

who came in the year 1664. Villanueva was succeeded by 
Medrano, and Medrano by Miranda, the three governors 
covering alternately the period between the years 1664 and 
1679. The events which during those tifteen years are re- 
corded in history are nothing but revolts, mutinies, and 
uprisings, on a small scale but as they form part of history 
it is necessary to brief l.y relate them. Before going any 
further the attention of the reader is called to what we said 
in another part of this work respecting the error of some 
writers who affirm that the true uprising of 1680, occurred 
in 1644, numbering among them, Pino. Barriero, Fr. Fi-ejes 
and others. Had not the author of this work found (in the 
work of Villagra) the narration of Governor Otermin, he 
might, perhaps, have fallen in the same error. But that error 
will now be corrected, even if the mendacious voyage of Peiia- 
loza to La Quivira has been published as a real fact. 

The Mutinies and Revolts — Governor Otermin s Over Confident 
Father Ayeta Goes to Mexico. 

About the years 1645 and 1646 forty Indians charged with 
murder and other crimes were tried, whipped and hanged. 
Serious difficulties subsequently occurred between the 
Spaniards and the Jemes Indians who were aided by the 
Apaches (as Otermin says) in which the death of a Spaniard 
was the result, on account of which twenty nine Indians 
were punished with imprisonment. Complete information 
concerning all that was happening in New Mexico having 
previously reached the King, the latter ordered the Viceroy 
to examine the situation with precaution, and to make a 
correct, strict and impartial investigation of the accusations 
and recriminations of all the complainants. In 1672 war 
broke out between the Apaches and the Zuni Indians be- 
cause of the destruction of several pueblos by the Apaches. 
In 1675, four Indians were punished with death, forty three 
others were punished publicly, and as many others placed 
under arrest for the mu^rder of several priests and colonists. 
The situation grew daily more alarming. All the pueblos 
were greatly alarmed. The nomadic tribes on the other hand 
had threatened the annihilation of the Spaniards. In 1676the 
Apaches rose in open war rushing all of a sudden upon the 



262 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Spanish settlements. The Spaniards for the lack of 
weapons, endured many sufferings, many of them losing 
their lives, and, in addition, many of the churches and small 
settlements were destroyed by the warlike savages. While 
matters were thus going from bad to worse in New Mexico, 
Father Francisco Ayeta, Custodio of New Mexico, had gone 
to Mexico in quest of succor and protection, all of which he 
obtained, but it was of no use because he could not return to 
New Mexico at the opportune moment. In 1679 * Governor 
Don Antonio de Otermin arrived, a little before the revolution 
broke out, and finding matters in such a deplorable state set 
in at once with energy to the task of re-establishing peace, a 
thing in which he was able to succeed, but only for a very 
short time, as will be seen. 

General Uprising and Expulsion of the Spaniards — Pope Heads the 
Rebellion— 1680. 

A year after the coming of Governor Otermin the cry for a 
general uprising was given by the Indians, the chief being 
the Indian Pope, native of the Pueblo of San Juan, but resid- 
ing at the Pueblo of Taos. For many years Pope and the 
chiefs of the other pueblos, except the Pueblo of Pecos who 
had declined to take part in the insurrection, had been plotting 
together the conspiracy which had for its object the expulsion 
of the Spaniards. 

Concerning the infernal machinations of Pop6 and the other 
conspirators, Otermin had no direct knowledge until it was 
impossible to offer effectual resistance. Such was the abso- 
lute secret the Indians kept about it. The plan was formed 
in such a manner that, at the hour and day agreed upon, all 
the pueblos had to strike the blow all over the country by 
killing all the Spaniards, without regard to persons, sexes, 
and ages, including the priests and families. In spite of 
all that there were not wanting friendly Indians, who secretly 
came and informed the Spaniards of what was being plotted 
against them, but the Spaniards, depending on Pope's false 

* Many authors say that Otermin came in 1676, but that is an 
error, as we have ah'eady said. — The Author. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 263 

friendship, did not believe the report. The Pecos Indians 
through their chief, Juan Ye, gave Otermin opportune 
advice, but Otermin would not believe them either. Ye him- 
self offered Father Velasco, who was in charge of that pueblo, 
an escort of Indians to take him to a place beyond danger, 
but the good priest answered that he preferred to die like a 
martyr, than to abandon the souls which God had entrusted 
to his care. Pop6 exercised an almost superhuman influence 
on the other Indians; he had told them that he and the devil 
were in pact in the uprising, and that, soon after the expul- 
sion of the Spaniards, he would organize a great empire. 
Pope's captains were Catiti, of Santo Domingo, Tupatu, (who 
afterwards became a loyal friend of De Vargas, as will be 
seen in another part of this work), of Picuris; Jaca (who 
secretly hated Pope), of Taos. The thirteenth day of August 
was the day fixed to commence the awful butchery. In July, 
notice was given to all the pueblos of what had been agreed, 
so that all should fall upon the incautious Spaniards at the 
same hour. There remained yet in Taos a friend to the 
Spaniards. It was the very same Jaca, governor of the 
pueblo. 

Jaca sent a flying courier to Otermin appraising him to 
save his life and the lives of the other Spaniards, and advis- 
ing him that at the Pueblo of Tesuqiie were two Indians who 
had gone to the provinces of Los Tanos and Queres with 
instructions from Pop6 to carry into effect the conspiracy. 
It was then that Otermin realized the seriousness of the 
situation, and, at the moment, caused the two Indians at 
Tesuque to be imprisoned, the said Indians confessed the 
whole plan. Otermin at once sent couriers to all the settle- 
ments and to all the priests of what was being plotted so they 
all should concentrate at Santa Fe. Pope learned that the 
conspiracy had been discovered and hastened the day of its 
execution giving orders to strike the blow on August 10th, 
(1680), before daybreak. So it was done, causing the death 
of a great number of priests and colonists, the departure of 
Otermin and the other Spaniards and some families, and the 
destruction of all that had been done and gained since the 
coming of Oiiate. 



264 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Assault — Heroism of the Spaniards — Siege of the City — Otermin is 
Wounded — Departure From the City. 

In addition to the confession of the two Indians of Tesuque, 
and, with a view that what had been told him should be con- 
firmed, Otermin sent out a party under Captain G6mez to 
ascertain the truth. Gomez returned in great haste and 
informed the governor that, unfortunately, everything was 
certain, and that, from every direction, Indians were 
coming ready to tight. The next day Gomez's account was 
confirmed, with the arrival of nearly two thousand Indians, 
who, with their warlike demonstrations, left no room to 
doubt that their purpose was to kill the Spaniards. Otermin 
used much prudence and wonderful firmness during the 
interviews held, at the solicitation of the Indians, between 
Pope and himself, the whole affair ending with an ultimatum, 
which, in the form of crosses, one white and one black, the 
Indians sent to Otermin to choose from both, that he might 
thus select, either his death, or his salvation. They ordered 
him to keep either of the two crosses; if he kept the white 
one, he would be permitted to go out with his people without 
any damage; if he took the black one, it would be to them an 
indication of war. Otermin kept neither of them, but, as 
he saw the city was well besieged, and that, in order to get 
out of it, a desperate struggle was necessary, he resolved to 
force his way out, the next day, the l6th of August. He pre- 
arranged, the night before, everything necessary to take the 
dangerous step at break of day, the 16th. So it w^as done. 
At break of day, the Spaniards began their march, with their 
families, but as the Indians had sentries watching the move- 
ments of the Spaniards, at the first move of the latter, the 
cry of alarm was given, and the hordes of savages rushed 
immediately upon the troops and the rest of the people. 
Otermin had only 1.50 soldiers; but, despite the insignificant 
number, he and his handful of braves fought with an unheard 
of valor. The terrible and unequal contest lasted until very 
late, Otermin being obliged to order a retreat at sundown in 
order to give the troops time to recuperate, and gather the 
few dead and give them burial. On the side of the Indians 
the mortality was frightful. Otermin and the rest of the 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 265 

people passed the night entrenched in the building which 
-exists even to this day, and which is known by the pompous 
name of "Palacio'" (the Palace). The total number of the 
Spaniards, including men, women and children, reached one 
thousand, whence it may be seen how clogged together they 
must have been within the building. There the Spaniards 
stayed, in that painful situation, for five days, courageously 
resisting the assaults of the maddened barbarians. 

During those five days the Indians destroyed by fire the 
convent, the church and all the residence houses, and finally 
€ut off the water that the Spaniards drank. Things had 
reached the point at which the duty was imposed upon the 
Spaniards to take the resolve of breaking the siege or to 
perish each and all. Otermin ordered Fathers Gomez, 
Daran and Parfan, to give the soldiers and the rest of the 
people their last exhortation and grant them absolution. 
The priests, always ready to die for their God and country, 
complied with the painful duty without a murmur, rather 
encouraging the combatants to shed their last drop of blood 
before surrendering. When the imposing ceremony ended, 
the army, was formed in battle array, composed of the one 
hundred soldiers that were still living, among them many 
wounded, with Otermin at the head, making the assault upon 
the Indians with such agility that after a most stubborn 
struggle of four hours the Spaniards were victorious leaving 
more than 300 hundred Indians dead upon the field of battle 
without any further loss on the part of the Spaniards than 
one dead soldier and several wounded. Governor Otermin 
being one of them, having received a wound on the breast. 
Forty Indians were made prisoners and immediately put to 
death. This happened on August 2Brd, 1680.* 

Encouraged by such a brilliant victory the Spaniards deter- 
mined the same day (August 23) to undertake their departure 
for El Paso del Norte, almost all of them going on foot and 
carrying on their shoulders their provisions, and the few 
effects they were able to carry. They arrived at El Paso on 
December the 20th, 1680. What the Spaniards suffered in their 
long journey we shall treat in the next chapter, in which the 
reader will be given almost textually the words of Otermin, 

* See "Appendix third to Villagra." Vol. 2. 



CHAPTER III. 



Uprising of the Indians and Departure of Otermin — Direction Towards 
Paso del Norte — What Follows was Taken From Otermin's Nar- 
rative Found Published as Appendix 3rd to Volume 2 of Villagra^ 
Page 11 et Seq. 

1680- 



On August 23 in the year 1680, as the army was stopping at 
the creek of San Marcos, (some 20 or 25 miles South of Santa 
F6) the soldiers brought in an Indian called Antonio whom 
they had taken prisoner. Evidently, this Indian was a spy, 
at least the Spaniards thought so. Otermin swore him that 
he might tell under oath all he knew about the uprising, he 
said: "that he was caught, at a cornfield, where he attempted 
to hide himself, by Ambrosio Carabajal and that his having es- 
caped from Casas Reales (Royal Palace) was due to his judging 
thattheSpaniardswereabouttoperish with the Lord Governor 
and Captain General, and in case they were not vanquished 
by the Indians they would take him as witness to another 
country, and he did not want to go out of this land: and that 
on that night he had not found a single person known to him 
among the uprisen (insurrectos), and the next day went to the 
villa (Santa Fe) because he had heard that the Lord Governor 
and all his people were coming, and having arrived at the 
villa he found within and without the Casas Reales (Royal 
Palace) a great number of Indians who were plundering 
Casas Reales, taking much of the property which had been 
left by the Spaniards, and that he also noticed and saw In- 
dians of all nations of which quite a number were from Taos 
and Picuris, and that he had heard an Indian from Tesuque 
called Roque, who told him that he having seen a great num- 
ber of Indians dead in the Plaza of the Villa, in the houses, 
streets and surroundings, that the said uprisen had said: 
"We are even with the Spaniards in the persons we have 
killed of them and those which the Spaniards have killed 
from us; it matters not that they go, for we shall live now as 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 267 

we like, and will settle on this villa (town of Santa F6) and 
wherever we may see fit;" and that the said Indian also told 
him that all the rebellious people were planningto get together 
in a narrow passage in the road by the Rio del Norte and 
near the house of Cristobal Anaya, and rush upon the Span- 
iards and the Indians who had gone with them to see if they 
could do them up; that this witness saw in the houses of the 
Villa and in Casas Reales, Nicolas de la Cruz, whom they call 
"Yonva"' who came there on horseback, and that he was in 
the Villa with the rest; that said affair was not finished on 
that day, and this witness came to the house and cornfields of 
his master where he was caught; that he neither knew nor saw 
anything more than what he has said, that it is true, accord- 
ing to the oath he made, which he affirmed and ratified upon 
this statement being read to him. He didn't know his age, 
nor how to sign his name. (He must be over 60 years a little 
more or less to judge from his appearance) "Signed by his 
Lordship, with the Alcalde, Juan Lucero de Godoy. The 
chief sergeant, Luis de Quintana. By and before me clerk 
of the government and of war. Don Antonio de Otermin, (Sig.) 
Juan Lucero de Godoy, (Sig.). Before me, Francisco Xavier, 
Clerk of the Government and War." 

Bodies of Murdered Fathers Found. 

The next day, the 24th, the army continued its march. At 
Santo Domingo they found the dead bodies of Fathers Fr. 
Juan de Talaban, Fr. Francisco Antonio de Lorenzana, and 
Fr. Jose Montes de Oca, who had been murdered the night 
before. They buried them and gathering the sacerdotal 
vestments, continued their march, picking up the corpses 
of the murdered Spaniards who lived in the lower country. 
At all settlements where the army passed they had to stop 
to bury the dead bodies they found of men, women and chil- 
dren. Between the place called "Paraje" (near Bernalillo), 
an Indian joined the army from the nation Tanos (Galisteo), 
That Indian, also, was interrogated by Otermin, after having 
taken the oath, concerning the uprising. The Indian said: 
"That this witness was in the service of Captain Jose Nieto, 
because he was born and raised at his (Nieto's) house and 
that a few days before he had heard that two Tegua Indians,. 



:268 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

natives of the pueblo of Tesuque, had arrived at the pueblo 
of San Cristobal, sent out there by the Tegua Indians, tell- 
ing them to rise up, that all the other pueblos were already- 
agreed upon that, and that at this time the order was divulged 
among the captains of the Teguas, and also that on that 
night advice was sent by the Indians of San Crist6bal to 
those of San Lorenzo to inform them of the uprising; that 
Father Custodio advised the master of this witness and the 
other Spaniards who gathered together at said pueblo of 

, and that while this witness was hoeing a corn 

Held the next day at the farm of his master, which is about a 
league from the pueblo of Galisteo, he saw coming towards 
the place where this witness was, an Indian called Barto- 
lome, head singer of the pueblo of Galisteo, who arrived 
there crying and told him: "What are you doing here? For 
the Indians want to kill the Custodio, and the padres, and 
the Spaniards, and have said that the Indian who shall kill a 
Spaniard will have an Indian woman for a wife; and whoever 
shall kill four shall have four wives, and he who shall kill 
ten or more shall have as many women; and they have said 
that they have to kill all the servants of the Spaniards and 
all who speak the Castilian; and they have also commanded 
to take away from all of them their rosaries and to burn 
them; begone, begone, for perhaps you will have the luck to 
arrive where the Spaniards are and you might escape with 
your wife and the orphan you have." And being asked for 
what reason they had caused the uprising, he said: "That 
the said singer told him that because they were exhausted 
by the work they had to do for the Spaniards and the relig- 
ious, and because they did not let them plant nor do other 
things they were in need of, and because they ill treated 
them they had insurrected; that afterwards he had learned 
from another companion that in the pueblo of Galisteo the 
Father Custodio, Fr. Domingo de Vera, had been murdered, 
and that at the camp, in sight of the pueblo, the Fathers Fr. 
Fernando de Velasco and Fr. Manuel Tinoco, minister guar- 
dian of Pecos and San Marcos, had also been killed; and that 
he saw that the said Indians took possession of the stock and 
things of the convent, and that in like manner said Indians 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 269' 

killed Captain Jose Nieto, Juan de Lesba, and Nicolas Leyba, 
and robbed them of their belongings, killed their wives and. 
children, reserving for themselves three of the said women; 
that after this the Indians from the pueblos of Tegua, Pecos 
and San Marcos went to fight at the Villa, and because they 
(the Spaniards) had killed six Tegua Indians from Galisteo, 
and many returned wounded, with broken arms and legs 
and other wounds, the Indians of the pueblo got angry and 
killed the said three women, called Lucia, Maria and Juana; 
and that in the same manner he learned how they had killed 
another damsel called Dorotea, a daughter of the aide de 
camp, Pedro de Leyva, and that the said singer had told 
him also that from the Teguas they had brought an order 
and also from the Indians of Taos, Picuris and Yutas saying 
that the Indian or pueblo who would not rise up in revolt 
would be destroyed by them, and that for this reason, and 
he being a Christian, he had come by the road of Santo 
Domingo to overtake the governor and the people that came 
marching with his Lordship, and at the sight of the encamp- 
ment the Indians of Santo Domingo came out on horseback 
and took from him his wife and the Indian woman, and he 
escaped in order to meet the Spaniards who were coming in 
the rearguard, and would favor him; that what he has said is- 
the truth of what he learned and saw according to his oath,, 
which he affirmed and ratified, this his statement being read 
to him. He declared he knew not his age nor how to sign. 
(He must be, according to his appearance, thirty years, a 
little more or less). Signed by his Lordship. I attest: Don 
Antonio de Otermin (Sig.) Before me, Francisco Xavier,. 
Clerk of Government and War." 

Otermin went on to the pueblo of Isleta meeting with an 
Indian on the road (who was also made prisoner by'the 
Spaniards): This Indian told the Spaniards that the religious 
of Zandia, Jemez, and Isleta and all the Spaniards of those- 
pueblos and their surrounding had congregated at Isleta and 
from there set out for El Paso del Norte. Otermin detained 
the Indian in order to interrogate him aftervv'ards and sent 
an escort to overtake those who had marched out of Isleta, 
according to what theJudian had said, that they might wait 



•270 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

for the army. At San Cristobal the army overtook those 
who had left Isleta, and thence all of them together continued 
the march. 

At the stopping place which Otermin called "Lamilla," 
(known today by the name of "Alamillo,"' in the county of 
Socorro,— the Author), Otermin had the Indian brought 
before him to be questioned, who after being sworn, declared: 
"That he was Don Pedro Gamboa, or Namboa, native of the 
Pueblo of Alameda, a widower, and his age over 80 years;" 
being asked why the Indians had risen in revolt refusing 
obedience to His Majesty, and failing in their duties as 
Christians, he said: "that since long ago, because the Span- 
iards punished the wizards and idolaters, the nations of the 
Teguas, Taos, Picuris, Pecos, and Jemez consulted about 
uprising and killing the Spaniards and religious and that, 
until the present time, they had been arranging the execu- 
tion of the plan;" being asked what he knew, saw and heard 
in the meeting and consultations held by the Indians, and 
what had been said among them, and tor what reason the 
Indians of the Pueblo of Zandia had burned the church, and 
outraged the images, he said: "That he had never been in 
any meeting, nor does he know any more; that what he had 
heard is that the Indians do not want any religious or 
Spaniards and that because he is so old he stayed in the 
corn field. That he learned from the Indians who came from 
the other land that they had killed the Spaniards and had 
stolen all their properties and plundered their houses;'" and 
when asked if he knew anything about the Spaniards who 
^re together at the Pueblo of Isleta, he said: "That it is true 
that, some days ago, they had gathered in said Pueblo of 
Isleta, and that the Spaniards, have been going out of the 
kingdom, taking along their properties, and that they (the 
Indians) did not fight with them (the Spaniards), because all 
the people had gone with the rest to fight at the Villa (Santa 
F6) and to finish up the governor and captain genera] and his 
people and he declared that the feeling all the Indians have 
in their hearts against the Spaniards is very great, since 
this kingdom was discovered, because the Spaniards and 
the religious have been removing their idols, witcheries, and 
idolatries; for those ancient things have been inherited from 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 271 

* 

their old ancestors, from generation to generation and he 
had heard this feeling expressed since he came to the use of 
his reason; that what he has said is the truth and what he 
knows, according to the oath he has made, which he affirmed 
and ratified the same having been read and interpreted to 
him through the interpreter of Captain Montano, who signed 
it with his Lordship because the Indian did not know how 
to write." "Before me the acting clerk Don Antonio de 
Otermin. (Sig) Before me: Francisco Xavier, clerk of Govern- 
ment and War.'"* 

* See Villagra's app. 3, pp 19-20. 



CHAPTER IV. 



First Voyage of De Vargas, 1692. 

The reader is informed before hand that the narrative we 
shall give with reference to what occured between the years- 
1680, the year of the expulsion of Otermin, and 1692 when 
De Vargas made his first voyage to New Mexico, is taken, 
more or less textually from the narrative given and published 
by Don Carlos de Sigiienza y G6ngora, in the year 1698, or 
one year after the first entry of De Vargas into New Mexico^ 
which narrative was pubhshed in Mexico, that year, under 
the title of "Mercurio Volante." 

Two reasons induced the author of this work to give intact, 
the narrative of said voyage of De Vargas to-wit: First, 
he considered it so correct that, to add to, or subtract from 
it, would be a blunder; and second, that the only way of pre- 
serving so precious an account of the most brilliant episode 
in the history of New Mexico for the coming generations, is 
to perpetuate it in history for, in our own epoch, the work 
referred to "el Mercurio Volante," can no longer be found, 
how much more difficult, then, will it be to find it some years 
hence? Before beginning the story of De Vargas' voyage it 
is indispensable that we become acquainted with what took 
place between the years 1680 and 1692 so as to close the gap 
between these two dates without breaking the thread of our 
history. 

Otermin s Second Entry. 

With the desire of returning to New Mexico to reconquer 
the territory, Otermin made, in 1681, a voyage with nearly 
200 soldiers, coming as far as the Pueblos of Isleta and Cochiti, 
without obtaining anything more, according to Siguenza, than 
the "imprisonment of some of the Indians who had outshone 
in the uprising.*' With that voyage Otermin's endeavors 
came to an end. He was succeeded by Don Domingo Gironza 
Petris de Cruzat, who made seventeen campaigns from El 
Paso del Norte to the pueblos of New Mexico "without 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 273 

results, except a few insignificant victories, and the entailing 
of much damage to the properties of the Indians," who sought 
the hiding places of the sierras whenever they felt the 
approach or arrival of the Spaniards. 

Reneros Succeeds Gruzat — Battle of Zia. 

Cruzat was succeeded by Don Pedro Reneros de Posada, 
who, in 1687, in his last campaign "desolated the small Pueblo 
of Santa Ana.'' The next year, 1 687, Cruzat succeeded Posada, 
and again undertook a bitter war against the rebellious 
Indians. Since his departure from Paso del Norte to his 
arrival at the Pueblo of Zia, Cruzp t fought his way continually, 
at times with the Apaches, and at other times with the pueblo 
[ndians, with victory always on his side. In the battle fought, 
August 1st, 1689, at Zia, Cruzat met most determined and 
stubborn resistance. He was there opposed by a great 
number of Indians from all the province. The battle lasted 
an entire day "leaving by evening no less than 600 Indians 
dead in the combat, and many others who were burned alive." 
(Siguenza) Thence Cruzat returned to El Paso, where he 
learned that his successor, Don Diego de Vargas Zapata 
Lujan Ponce de Leon, would soon arrive to relieve him. 

De Vargas' Celebrated Voyage — 1692. 

After many delays in selecting the person to whom the 
reconquest might be entrusted the Viceroy, the Count of 
Galva chose very judiciously the very famous General Don 
Diego de Vargas Zapata Lujan Ponce de Leon. This General 
commenced immediately after his appointment, to recruit 
together the necessary number of people and to gather 
ammunitions of war and food provisions at El Paso, the place 
in which a re-inforcement of Spanish troops was to join him. 
As the troops did not arrive on the day they were expected, 
De Vargas did not care to wait for them any longer because 
autumn had now set in. Let us allow Vargas, through 
Siguenza to give us his own narrative: 

"Having waiteduntil Aug. 21,1692, for a troopof fifty Spanish 
auxiliaries, who according to this arrangement, had to come 
from the Presidios (garrisons) of Parral, in order to enroll 
the small number of people with which the entry was being 



274 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

made, Don Diego, impatient at such delay and accompanied 
by only a squad of the company of El Paso and three 
religious, Fr. Corvero, Fr. Nunez, and Fr. Alonza, started 
from this place, the same day to incorporate himself with 
the main body of the camp which, with the baggage and live 
stock was already traveling under Captain Roque de 
Madrid, since the 16th of the month through lands of the 
enemy. At six o'clock of the 24th he overtook them and 
marching with caution and the spies which were needed 
in that country without coming in sight of any living thing, 
the camp took lodgment on the 9th of September, in a village 
absolutely ruined in which, 'I do not know what Mexia had 
at his stockranch.' This point seemed to him fit for dis- 
engaging himself of some portion of the equipage, and for 
making thenceforth the marches without so much hindrance; 
and fortifying it, with all diligence by meS^ns of stockades. 
Captain Rafael Tellez with 14 Spaniards and 50 Indians was 
ordered to remain there. At three o'clock the next day, 
with only 40 Spaniards and 50 Indians, all men of resolution 
and well armed, the General left his ranch of Mexia to strike 
a day break blow to the pueblo of Cochiti, distant 18 leagues 
from that point. At three o'clock in the morning our men 
found themselves at the suburbs of the pueblo, unhindered 
by the distance, which seemed greater on account of the 
roughness of the road, nor (delayed) by reason of having 
crossed twice the Rio delNorte which was almost unfordable. 
Althougti the grain fields that were near it (the pueblo) gave 
the impression that Indians were there, it was discovered 
after a little search that the pueblo was deserted. That the 
night vigilmightnotbefruitless, thegeneral,inferringthatthe 
inhabitants of Cochiti mighthave retired to the pueblo of Santo 
Domingo, distant the one from the other about three leagues, 
he and his men, after changing horses, appeared before that 
pueblo a little after sunrise. What was formerly the plaza 
vras found well fortified, and most of the dwellings com- 
pletely ruined without any indication of having had recent 
dwellers. It had not been known that from the time when 
governor Don Domingo Jironza destroyed Zia and caused a 
great deal more damage when he routed the ten nations, the 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 275 

inhabitants of these pueblos had withdrawn to the mountain 
ridges or the general would have passed along without 
arriving at them," 

Precipitate March of De Vargas to Santa Fe — Singular and Unexpected 
Success in its Surrender — September 14, 1692. 

The narrative follows: 

•'The distance from here (Santo Domingo) to the Villa of 
Santa P^, capital of all this kingdom, is only ten leagues; the 
presumption that the rebels were there well fortified was 
sufficient for not investing, or even coming in sight of it late 
in the day, the valiant general, not unnerved by the very insig- 
nificant number of persons he had with him, and undaunted 
by the possibility of getting succors, determined to fall upon 
it by daybreak. He proposed this decision to his men who 
applauded it; and, as in order to succeed in resolutions of that 
character, there are ^no better means than to put them into 
execution at the very instant they are conceived, he set out 
thence at three o'clock in the afternoon of the same day, the 
eleventh. He found the road almost blotted out through 
abandonment, and after traveling only three leagues, neces- 
sity obliged him to camp for the night at the foot of a sierra. 
They traveled three leagues the next day, and they halted at 
Cieneguilla, a dilapidated pueblo, and despatching some 
Spanish scouts, and some friendly Indians to watch the 
hillocks, in the direction of the villa, it was not possible to see 
nor to capture any of the rebels although fresh tracks of 
their horses were found. 

"At sundown, after a short but Christian exhortation to his 
troops the general mounted his horse, and the army marched 
in silence and with vigilance until eleven o'clock when the 
thickness of the woods and the darkness of the night pre- 
vented any further progress. At two in the morning the 
march was resumed and by the shelter of a deserted farm- 
house, where they had stopped, Pr. Prancisco Corvera, 
absolved all those in the camp, and offered to God and his 
most holy mother a devout prayer, and the orders of what 
was to be done being intimated by the general, we took the 
road to the Villa (Santa Pe) which was now near. 



276 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Santa Fe is Reached. 

"It must have beeu four o'clock in the morning of the 13th 
of September when they came in sight of tlie villa and at this 
hour they, the Indians, doubtless had sentries for they had 
already sounded the alarm. The whole place was found walled 
and with intrenchments, and especially the place used by them 
as a fortress, luhich was the ancient palace oj the governors; and 
raising a frightful yell in order to give themselves courage 
the wall was crowned, on every part with an infinite multi- 
tude of Indians. While they were employed in this, and in 
bringing thick beams and logs and large stones to prevent 
our men from getting near to them, the water was cut off to 
them, which was carried in through a ditch. Having accom- 
plished this, which was no small thing, a trumpeteer was sent 
to assu re them of pardon and to offer them great conveniences 
if they would give themselves up; they all answered in one 
voice; and with derisions repeatedly thanked the Spaniards 
for coming into their houses, like madmen, saying without 
much trouble, we would all perish, therein. 

"By this time divers troops of Indians were noticed over 
the mountain ridge some on horseback, and others on foot, 
but all armed, who, had not come from theneighboring pueb 
los on business, but to the aid of the Villa which shows that 
they had had notice of its being in danger. Some of our 
squads went to oppose them, and without any remarkable out- 
break some of them were made prisoners, and among the 
prisoners (notable luck) was their Governor whose name was 
Domingo. When brought before the General, the latter, by 
means of caresses and good reasoning, captured his good will, 
so that he (Domingo) entered the Villa, and assured his peo- 
ple that it was not the purpose of the Spaniards to punish 
them, but only to bring them back to the fold of the Catholic 
Church, from which their apostacy held them apart, and also 
to the obedience, which through their uprising, they had 
denied to the crown of Spain. 

"They gave him no answer, except that they would all die 
first, rather than do such a thing, and that, since he, forgetful 
of what he owed to his country, had already made friends with 
the Spaniards, their enemies, he should go to them and die 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 277 

with them. He returned to us very much disgusted with 
such an answer; and, hereupon, we consumed the day in set- 
ting in position a battery of two small pieces of artillery, and 
in again sending them warnings that they might avoid death, 
and the plunder of the Villa. But, God softening their ob- 
stinate hearts, they suddenly proposed, fear-stricken at the 
determined resolve of our men, that if we withdrew our 
artillery and the armed men, they would come forward to 
treat with the General on what would be useful to them. 

"They were answered that in as much as they were be- 
sieged and deprived of water, their demand was not proper, 
and especially when our movement had not been under- 
taken simply as a threat; and to trust to the benignity 
with which pardon was promised to them, and that, if 
they came foward without arms to give obedience, as they 
should, whatever they should ask would be granted to 
them without reluctance. A great portion of the evening 
was spent in such demands, and finally one of them came out. 
As those who were on the wall beheld the tenderness and 
love with which the General received him, they began to 
imitate him in increased numbers, and all were equally in- 
gratiated; the same treatment was extended to those who 
were doing duty as sentries in the thickets and hills, these 
also came to offer themselves in surrender and all disarmed. 

"It was then about six o'clock in the evening, and, although 
it did not appear reasonable to raise the siege, it was thought 
less inconvenient to do so, and select a near by spot in w^hich 
to establish quarters for our security on that night, than 
disperse in different places the scanty force that we had; 
and telling the Indians that this was done, in their behalf, it 
was executed as said, but with sentries and night patrols on 
every side. 

"The next day dawned, being the 14th on which the Catholic 
church celebrates the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, 
and having come out of the Villa, a good throng of the prin- 
cipal Indians, with demonstrations of peace, greeted the 
General, and the Religious and those who were there, with 
courteous words; and as they added that he (the General) 
could enter into it (the Villa) when he pleased, it did not seem 
convenient to the General to delay long in doing that. He 



278 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

arrived at the gate that is on the wall (which is a single one) 
and found it fastened on all sides with iron bars followed by 
a gangway with various loopholes which looked like a fort or 
half moon for greater defense. 

De Vargas Takes Peaceful Possession of Santa Fe. 

"They proposed here tenaciously and with obstinacy, but 
also obsequiously and submissively, that, in order that 
their people might not become restless, the General and the 
Rev. Father President with six soldiers, and without hand 
guns should enter. "That is nothing," said the intrepid 
General. "Who will not risk himself in order to obtain with 
perpetual glory an illustrious name?" And calling upon the 
most Holy Mary with devout efficacy he stepped forward. 
He arrived with the Father President and the six soldiers 
to a great square where the Indians had just planted a 
beautiful cross. When the noise of the great crowd that 
was there had subsided, he proposed to them, in the Castilian 
language which many of them understood well, that: Our 
Monarch and Lord Charles II, their legitimate King, having 
forgotten the apostacy with which they had renounced the 
Catholic religion; the sacrilege whereby they had deprived 
the Religious of their lives; desecrated the temples, broken the 
images and contaminated the sacred vessels; of the cowardice 
with which they had knifed the Spaniards without sparing 
the women and tender children; of the barbarity with which 
they had burned the farms of the latter and ruined the 
pueblos; of the consequences that had followed from such 
abominations; he (His Majesty) had sent him with full 
authority, to pardon them without any other condition than 
their return to the fold of the Holy Church which would 
receive them as a pious mother if they solicited pardon with 
penance and tears and with the understanding that they 
should swear obedience to his Catholic Majesty as their 
legitimate King. 

"With pleasure they conceded both demands, the General 
then commanded the Royal Ensign, who was at his side, to 
unfurl his standard. The General then said in ringing and 
intelligible tones: "The Villa of Santa F^, Capital of the 
Kingdom of New Mexico, I now take possession of, and with 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 279 

her, her provinces and all the pueblos, for theCatholic Majesty 
of the King, Our Lord Charles II, long live him for the 
protection of all his vassals and of his dominions many long 
years." "Long live, long live, long live, that we may all serve 
him, as we ought," the rest answered and prostrating them- 
selves before the Holy Cross, and the Father President sang 
the Te Deum Laudamus. 

"From this moment they threw open the gate of the Villa 
without any mistrust, and constructed a tent of branches 
of trees in the plaza for the ceremony of their absolution 
from their apostacy, as well as to give them mass, and to 
baptise their little ones; and after listening to the elegant 
sermon full of fervor preached by the religious Chaplain, 
they obtained the absolution and the baptism of their little 
children with manifest jubilee; and they attended mass not 
only without restlessness, but with devotion, and the same 
happened the next day, the 17th of the month, when another 
mass was said." 

Indian Chief Tiipatii Meets Vargas. 

"While this was happening in the Villa of Santa Fe there 
was at the pueblo of San Juan which is not very far from 
here, Don Luis Tupatii, an Indian of mature age, whose 
qualities and valor, after the death of Alonzo Catiti and of 
Pop6, gained for him the government of the whole kingdom, 
without any opposition from anyone. Whether it was the 
fear, which took general hold of them all, or any other motive, 
that held him quiet, I am not able to say, because I am 
ignorant of it; but by reflecting upon what he subsequently 
spoke, I am persuaded that he was guided by prudence. 

"With the presumption that he had not come to Santa F^, 
for fear that his life might be taken away, the General sent 
him as passport and assurance one rosary of his; Don Luis' 
answer to the embassy was courteous assuring them that he 
had heard with complacency of the arrival of the Spaniards, 
that his having not gone out to welcome his lordship imme- 
diately, was not due to malevolence or timidity, but rather to 
follow the custom of being treated as was due his position, 
and that his committee permitting him, and if the neighbors 
at the Villa did not fail in the respect due him at the time of 



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The above is a list of officials elected by the electoral college in Santa Fe on the 7tli 
of October, 1845. The first two names are the ones elected as the regular diputado 
(delegate) and Iiis proxy. The five names following are of those elected as the regular 
nicnibers of the Departmental Assembly and tlie last three were elected as proxies. The 
original is in the possession of the Author of this work. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 281 

visiting them, he would come to the presence of the General 
to obey his orders and to help him with a firm friendship in 
whatever he might employ him. 

"With the assurance that the General would be pleased to 
have him come when it should be his pleasure, he came the 
next day, the neighbors of the Villa having gone out to receive 
him after the usage of war, Don Luis arrived accompanied by 
200 Indian soldiers well prepared. He came mounted on a 
tine horse, had a fire-lock, powder and ammunition, and on 
the forehead a nacarine shell like a crown and was dressed 
after the Spanish fashion, but with deer skins. At a distance 
of seventy steps from the General's tent he halted, and the 
guard of 200 Indians formed into a square, and after dis- 
mounting he stepped forward with gravity, and mak- 
ing three bows, he bent the knee to Don Diego, who was 
outside, and kissed his hand. Don Diego returned all this 
with an embrace, and this first visit was confined to the 
customary salutations, Don Luis showing in his countenance 
his pleasure. After having presented the General gifts of 
marine wolf skins, daitas and bufl'alo robes, and receiving (in 
return) a reward of a fine horse, which he accepted apprecia- 
tively, he took leave to return the next day. 

"So he did, and, without bringing to mind past occur- 
rences, they discussed together the present condition of the 
Kingdom. It was there learned not only about the hostili- 
ties carried on by the Apaches, ever since the Spaniards had 
gone, against all in general, but also of the refusal of the 
nations of Pecos, Queres, Taos, and Jemes to obey him, and 
that wishing to chastise their unfaithfulness he was inclined 
to think that the Spaniards should go with him to those 
pueblos. He was answered that not only those but all the 
pueblos would be visited;withthe understandingthat,if inany 
part they (the inhabitants) did not act as those in la Villa, the 
obstinate would be proceeded against, with fire and blood 
that to those who had been faithful to Don Luis up to that 
time every attention would be shown, and that if they 
became submissive, as they should, to what he should order 
them, he would take them along with himself. On giving 
(Don Luis) assurance of the confidence in which he (the 
General,) might rest concerning his proceedings, the General 








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State ballot of 1851. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 283"- 

replied that if they did not yield he would kill them all, and 
that he might be convinced how, independently of alien aid, 
he desired to reduce the whole kingdom to what was just, he 
would go ahead with only the Spaniards and friendly Indians 
that accompanied him, 

"To such resolution Don Luis answered without emotion, 
but with mildness; and asked the General for 6 days time to 
provision and prepare his men, for the purpose of accom- 
panying him with his leave and pleasure, on the journeys, 
he was to make. He came with three hundred Indian war- 
riors very well armed at the time he promised; and leaving 
at the Villa the proper orders, the General marched the camp 
off on the 21st of Sept. 1692, at day break. On this same day, 
the company of 50 Spaniards from El Parral arrived at sun 
down, and the next day they reached Galisteo where they 
joined the main body, and both, with the followers of Don 
Luis, came before the pueblo of Pecos by sunrise on the 23rd 
of September. 

"There dwelt in this pueblo from what we judged by the 
number of its dwelling houses, about two thousand families; 
but they had already abandoned it. This, notwithstanding, 
and the Indian auxiliaries being aware of their whereabouts, 
some of our Indians with a few Spaniards were sent to the 
neighboring sierra, their hiding place, which is very rough. 
Quite a quantity of skins and other objects were found in 
the pueblo, and some of the Indians found near by were 
made prisoners without any resistance from them. The 
General treated them all with great kindness, and, hanging 
a rosary bv the neck of one of them, he sent him speedily to 
call the fugitives, assuring them that, if they came down 
unarmed, they would obtain pardon for all they had done; 
but neither this one, nor three others who were sent after- 
wards on the same errand ever returned, and, if any of them 
returned, it was but to say that he could not find his com- 
rades where he had left them. The camp stayed five days 
at that place, and from there the campaign was carried 
through the province without a single death on either side 
and with thirty-six Indians captured. 

"It being apparent to the General that the time was being 
spent there without any benefit, and having received import- 



^84 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OP NEW MEXICO. 

ant news from the Captain of the Tegua Indians, who came 
to offer his services, (the news) was to the effect that the 
Pecos Indians were going to place themselves under the pro- 
tection of the Apaches as they, themselves, had told it to 
him, setting the prisoners at liberty and exhorting them to 
persuade their comrades to give themselves up, the General, 
on the 27th of September, returned to the villa, where the 
Indians received him amid feastings and rejoicings. Here he 
remained until the next Monday, the twenty-ninth, without 
noticing or suspecting any untoward movement in its inhab- 
itants. 

De Vargas Prosecutes his Voyage of Peaceful Conquests Northward — 
Surrender of all the Pueblos North of Santa Fe. 

"With a larger body of Spstnish and Indian troops, and 
with more efficient military apparatus than what we had 
before, the General now started in a northerly direction and 
entered the pueblo of Tesuque the same day. On the 30th, 
he was at the pueblos of Cuyamungue, Nambe and Jacona, 
the 1st of October, at Pojoaque and San Ildefonzo; on 
the second, at Santa Clara and San Juan; on the fourth, 
at San Lazaro and San Cristoval; from there we went 
to Picuris, and in all of them Don Luis Tupatu, commanded 
the Indians to give the Governor, the religious and all the 
camp solemn receptions. All who lived in the pueblos came 
out of them, all with crosses, and along the roads the most 
curious arches of cypresses and flowers were to be seen. 
These apostates reconciled themselves with the church, 
asked for baptism for their children with great anxiety, and 
their requests were granted after which we took new pos- 
session of them all, for and in the name of the Catholic Ma- 
jesty, our Monarch and Lord, Charles II; all this was done 
umid great and general rejoicing and festive dances. 

"It snowed on this night, and the storm continued the next 
day; the General mistrusted that the road which is dan- 
gerous might be closed, (by the snow) and be prevented 
from attacking those of Taos, set out on the sixth, at eleven 
o'clock, to shorten the journey by half a day in order to 
insure the day break attack; but his efforts, much to his 
regret, were frustrated, for on reaching the pueblo at four in 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 285- 

the morning of the seventh, there was not, at that hour, a 
single person at the pueblo. By tracks that could be traced 
on the snow the friendly Indians conjectured as to where 
they might be, and marching toward the mountain range 
that was near by, an Indian was noticed who issued out of it; 
the General stepped ahead to receive him, and, having em- 
braced him, caused him to be asked the reason which had 
moved his comrades to retire to the mountain; and from him 
it was learned that the fear they entertained for him (the 
General) had been the cause. 

"He caused a rosary to be placed on his neck, and assuring 
him that he had come only to pardon them and to lead them 
back to their obligations as Christians, which the}' had denied 
in the uprising, he made him return, with this embassy, to 
the mountain range. The Indian ran with much speed, and, 
in a little while, another came (quite fluent in the Castilian 
language) with whom the same acts were performed, and, by 
persuasions, doubtless, of these emissaries, the fugitives^ 
came back in troops. This they did until the next day; then 
all being gathered together in the square of their pueblo, the 
same was done unto them as in other places, and were left in 
their home grateful and glad. 

The Jemes, Queres, Pecos and Apache Indians Prepare their Uprising 
— De Vargas Receives the News and Returns to Santa Fe — He 
Undertakes a Campaign Against the Rebels and Subdues Them 
Without Bloodshed. 

"In proof of the truth of their reduction, and as an evident 
confirmation of their friendship, these Taos Indians sent 
immediately to the General, the news that the Jemes, Queres 
and Pecos, with the help of the Apaches and that of the pro- 
vinces of Zuni and Moqui, were ready to attack him in 
ambushes on his departure from the kingdom. This news 
obliged him to withdraw to the Villa, both to inform the Most 
Excellent Lord, the Count of Galve, and viceroy of New Spain 
of what had happened until then, as well as to rehabilitate 
himself with people and provisions in order to go ahead, 
confident that his success would be insured only by the 
dihgence and promptness of his determinations. 



^86 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

"Having prepared, as best he could, what he judged neces- 
sary, he set out from the Villa on October 17th. He was 
accompanied not only by Don Luis Tapatu, but by Don 
Lorenzo, brother of Tupatii and a good corps of brave Indian 
warriors, and coming in sight of the Pueblo of Pecos on the 
same day the surrender of the inhabitants was obtained 
without any resistance. This was brought about by the 
thirty-six prisoners who had been given full liberty, who told 
the others how kindly they had been treated, being well 
satistied of the truth, which they all praised, and relying on 
the promises of the General, they came back to the church 
with the knowledge of their errors and gave obedience with 
humility to whom they owed it, consenting to be baptized, 
those who had not been. 

"With the Jemes we did not succeed so easily, because, 
persisting in their obstinacy and perfidy, they, not only had 
with them and in their own quarters many Apaches, but they 
had sohcited aid from Captain Malacate of the Queres; and, 
although the later prudently dissuaded them from such a 
purpose, they yet persisted in their evil intention, and in 
order to succeed they came out of their pueblo, all armed, to 
fight our men. Their infantry extended along the ridges of 
the hill, and both this as well as some of their cavalry troops 
that were approaching, scattered dust upon the eyes of those 
of us who marched impatiently, as not being able to avenge 
such contempt. The reason of this toleration which seems 
excessive was the fact that the general placed the death 
penalty on anyone who should transgress orders in anything 
to the injury of the rebels, even if they should, for that 
matter, offer the most grave motives. 

"There is no doubt that, on account of this, and on account 
of so many prudent measures he (the general) took in his 
entry, he justly deserved an eulogy. He dissembled the shame- 
less tactics of the rebels because he recognized the fact 
that they did it to force him to an open rupture with them, 
and as it seemed best to him to show them magnanimity and 
serenity amid so many dangers, that they might hold him as 
invincible, he obtained, with the admiration and fright of 
the barbarous rebels what he had in his mind. Such was the 
fear that captured their hearts, by means of the contempt 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 287 

with which he, the General, looked upon them, that, while 
they declared that ,they feasted the Spaniards with the dust 
they cast on their eyes, they, however, admitted them into 
their pueblo, and, to all appearances, without any displeasure, 
and, to effect their surrender, the very same things were 
done there as at the other pueblos. He went from here to 
the nation of the Queres and without meeting any opposition, 
divers pueblos went back to the Catholic church and to the 
royal crown. 

"The time employed in this expedition reached to October 
the 29th, when he (the General) arrived at the pueblo of Mexia 
where he had left Captain Rafael Tellez in charge of the bag- 
gage. The reason that compelled the general to make this 
digression was to rid himself of 76 Indians he had freed 
from captivity, and to disband the war Indians that had 
accompanied him from the beginning; for, with those of Don 
Luis Tupatu, who proved themselves most loyal, he had an 
over surplus of people. To all these, and to all the Spaniards 
who were there, and desired to return, he added a squad of 
eight soldiers, and, recommending to them part of the beasts 
of burden and transportation vehicles, he sent to El Paso. 

"He had before summoned a council of war of all the cor- 
porals to determine with them whether the campaign should 
be prosecuted until it was concluded, or, if what had been 
done, was sufficient until the next year. They all inclined 
to the latter expedient, both because the horses were quite 
worn out, and because also of the bitter colds and snows 
which were now setting in, and to which was added the dry- 
ness of the land which they had yet to tread, together with 
the fact that those who occupied it, were the most obstinate 
among all the apostate rebels. Don Diego assured them that 
they were right; and, notwithstanding the unanimity of the 
votes, he performed the contrary. He based himself first, 
on the patronage which he had so manifestly experienced 
from the Most Holy Virgin, in whose name and under whose 
protection, he had undertaken this campaign; secondly, on 
the good luck with which he had obtained until then, with- 
out any remarkable danger, what seemed impossible; and 
thirdly, on the horror which his name inspired on account of 
his daring and violent resolutions, even among the stubborn. 



288 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

After the Reduction of the Pueblos Above Noted De Vargas Continues 
His Voyage to Acoma, Zuni and Moqui and Other Pueblos of the 
West With Similar Results — The Narrative Follows: 

"Relying upon these hopes, and accompanied by 89 Span- 
ish soldiers and by the troops of the Indian auxiliaries com- 
manded by Don Luis, he left this place on the 30th of Octo- 
ber and by the 3rd of November, he found himself at the foot 
of the inexpugnable "Penol" of Acoma; the contidence in the 
Penol's inaccessibility imparted boldness to the Queres who 
dwelt on it, so as not to heed the pardon and friendship the 
General offered them and there was no way until next day, of 
succeeding in that most difficult ascent through those 
brushes. The first one to undertake it was the General with 
nine Spaniards. The Indians, frightened at such a heroic 
action, submitted peaceably to his obedience, and leaving 
them in joyful reconciliation with the church, and with suf- 
ticient proofs of a true friendship, he continued the march. 

"He arrived at the "Penol" (Big Rock), on November 11th., 
which was as inexpugnable as the tirst, where on account 
of the hostilities of the Apaches against the Zuriis who lived 
in their vicinity, having reduced live pueblos to one alone, 
they had retired for better security. No difficulty was met 
in ascending it, but rather a good deal of kindness and 
courtesy from the Indians who expected the General and his 
men outside the pueblo, and not one of those (pueblos) which 
till then had already been reduced to obedience, showed 
more politeness and attention than here, and in it alone were 
found samples of its primitive Christianity. 

"These consisted in keeping, with some show of reverence 
what was found in a compartment of the house of an Indian 
woman. By its door (smaller than the smallest postern of a 
window) the General entered and found in an altar modestly 
adorned, where two tallow candles burned, the effigie of 
Christ Our Lord crucified, a canvass with the picture of 
St. John the Baptist, his Precursor; some sacred vessels; 
the chalice, some missals, all of which articles were covered 
with remnants of ornaments. Such a finding impressed 
the General and some of the corporals, who had also 
entered, with notable devotion and tenderness, and in giving 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 289 

proof of this gratitude they gave many embraces to the 
Captains of those Indians; he also gave them assurance of 
special kindness in the future and instructed them to take 
care of said articles. Prom here he returned to Alond, a 
pueblo without people, to enter into the province of Moqui 
and there end the journey; recognizing, beforehand how ex- 
hausted were the horses on account of the few pastures, and 
continued traveling, and many soldiers being devoid of 
strength on account of the arduous work they had done 
which overcame them all; making out of these, who were 
twenty five in number, a company with the greater part of 
the beasts of burden and transports, he entrusted them to 
Capt. Tellez. He commanded him to prepare himself for 
any emergency, in that place, and reserved for those who 
were to go with him (who were 63, counting the corporals) 
what seemed to him to be necessary. 

"From here to the Pueblo of Aguatubi, which is the first of 
the province of Moqui there are forty leagues, and only three 
watering places in all of them; the same were traveled with 
untold suffering from the fifteenth to the nineteenth of Nov- 
ember; their hardships were softened, by the General 
finding himself almost suddenly among 800 Moquis, all 
armed; and as the horses of our men were coming very slowly 
and almost without breath for lack of water, so much so 
that on this account, hardly 25 men accompanied him; it may 
thus be seen that this day had been of all those in the journey 
the one of greater peril; for the Moquis, imitating the Jemes 
in throwing up dust, and exceeding them in discordant noise 
and yells, they went as far as to take away the arms from 
some of our men without any resistance because the Gener- 
al with most righteous precept had commanded it. 

"The Captain of that pueblo whose name was Miguel, 
traveled by the General's side and had come out as leader 
of his men. He told him (recognizing that he could under- 
stand Spanish) to reduce his men to what was just, and that 
as his coming to that province was only for peaceful pur- 
poses they should receive and behave with him, in a different 
manner. As they did not heed this proposal nor what Don 
Luis told them, to quiet them, our men at a distance of a league 
from the pueblo, stopped three or four times, so that 



290 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

those who came behind might come up with them, and not 
being able to accomplish this, as we desired, we proceeded 
forward until we were within musket shot, or a little more, 
from the first houses. 

Terrible Harangue of De Vargas Against the Belicose Rebels — Most 
Singular Coincidence of the Reprimand with a Thunder Clap and 
fall of a Lightning Bolt from Heaven — The Insurgents are Terrorized 
and Surrender Unconditionally. 

"The General halted here, and, compelling those who out- 
shone in their audacity and shamelessness to come there: 
'Ah, Indians' he told them, 'Ah Dogs of the worst breed 
that the Sun doth warm! Think ye, that my forbearance has 
been the effect of fear at your multitude and arms? It is pity 
on you that has detained me from killing you, for at a single 
signal from me you would have all perished! Whom am I 
speaking to? Hold ye yet your arms in your hands, when 
you see me irritated? How is it that, being Christians, but 
so wicked, that, false to your baptismal promises, you pro- 
faned the church, destroyed the images, killed the Religious, 
and offered up yourselves in sacrifice to the devil for your 
greater damage: how is it that you do not cast yourselves 
down with humility upon that ground and adore the true 
mother of your God, and mine, who, in the image that ennob- 
les this Royal Standard, come to invite you with pardon 
that you may go to Heaven? Kneel down, kneel down with- 
out delay, lest with the tire of my indignation I consume 
you all!" 

"They (the Indians) were less horrified with the peal of a 
lightning bolt that together with these w^ords, fell (near 
them) and, without knowing what to say they laid down their 
arms and placed their knees on the ground adoring the most 
Holy Mary on that image and repeatedly striking their 
breasts. This was followed by the whole pueblo, and enter- 
ing into what they used as a plaza, whose gate could admit 
but one man at a time, and this by entering sideways, pos- 
session was taken of it for our King and Lord: and inform- 
ing them that he would return the next day to reconcile 
them, accompanied by many troops of Indians, the General 
went out thence to a watering place that was nearby. As it 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OP NEW MEXICO. 291 

was very cold, he commanded them to haul in some wood to 
build a fire, but noticing they manifested a disposition to 
dissemble, he threatened that with their own arms and even 
with themselves the tire would be built; they feared that such 
would be the case, and, in a short while, they brought much 
of it, and the night was passed with the usual precaution of 
sentries and patrol guards. 

De Vargas Becomes God'Father. 

"On the morning of the next day which was the twentieth, 
the entry was made and the reconciliation with the church was 
effected as also the baptizing of the little ones. Captain 
Miguel asked the General to be the god-father of his grand- 
children, a favor which the General granted and was highly 
appreciated by Captain Miguel, who thereupon again request- 
ed the General to honor him as his guest. After having feasted 
him and the Religious, and the military corporals as best he 
could he accompanied them to the headquarters at the 
watering place where they repaired early to pass the night. 

"He, Miguel, came to him, (the General) before sunrise, and 
after having greeted the General kissing the hands and 
cassock of the Father President, he began to sob, and burst 
into tears. While the General endeavored to dry them and 
to know the cause, (of his sorrow) he answered inCastilian: 
Your Lordship might well have recognized the ease with which 
the great number of my men could have routed you, and be 
convinced that at a single signal of mine they would have 
done it. My death will now follow, because I did not allow 
them such pleasure which they wanted; but what I have 
heard, although it will not be impossible for me to remind 
them of what I have done for them so they may not ill-treat 
me, is, how shall I be able to rid myself from those of Gualpi, 
whose Captain called Antonio will execute upon your Lord- 
ship and myself what I failed to do? 

"Appreciating this news in its just value, the General 
answered him with firmess and courage: Do not fear he 
said and come next day mounted and place yourself on my 
side so you may see prodigies. He did so and with only 
five well armed squads of Spaniards and the Indians of Don 
Luis Tupatu, without any baggage he set out on the 22nd 



292 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

towards that pueblo, which was three leagues distant. He 
found Captian Antonio and many others, without any prepa- 
ration of arms, on the road, and with them very many others. 
Their whoops and yells were horrifying, and their shamless- 
ness reached the utmost, the authority, which Don Luis 
had among them, being insufficient to reduce them to 
quietness. And to the representation which the latter and 
the General made to them with mildness, they answered that 
they had no jurisdiction except over those who were without 
arms; that they (the General and Don Luis) should deal with 
tne others who were strangers. And, although he (Antonio) 
with this answer only manifested his unapproving intent 
and double dealing, the General, without employing other 
weapons than those of scorn and contempt for his foul 
dealings continued marching without any mistrust and 
entered as far as the public square of the pueblo where he 
strengthened himself. A cross was placed there, and after 
convincing them with convincing reasons as to what they 
should do they reconciled themselves with God and swore 
obedience to their Lord and King. 

"On baptizing his little ones Captain Antonio, also, invited 
the General as his co-father, (godfather of a child) and obtain- 
ing his consent, called him to dinner; and, although the confus- 
ion reigning among his (Antonio's domestics) should have 
dissuaded him. Captain Miguel co-operating to the same pur- 
pose, trusting to good luck, and guardingagainst carelessness 
with the utmost caution, the General accepted the invitation, 
andaccompaniedby the Religious and some corporals, entered 
the house. The feast consisted of broiled eggs and some 
water-melons; and thanking him with a pleasant countenance, 
he went over to the pueblo of Moxonavi not far away where 
both our men and the Indians did the same as in Gualpi 
without failing in anything. The only thing extra found in 
the town was three of the captains with crosses in their hands 
before which, in order to set them an example, the General 
knelt three times. The numerous concourse of people found 
there asked (after giving up their arms) for absolution, and 
their obedience being accepted, the General went on forward. 

"The Pueblo of Jongopavi was reached after a brief while, 
and without any persons remaining in their houses, they all 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 293 

went out to receive the General and all his people, with mani- 
fest gladness and courteous pleasure; what had been done in 
the other pueblo was briefly done there also, and as the 
country run over during all that day lacked water, fourteen 
leagues being traveled both ways, he returned to the watering 
placeofAguatuvi, though very late. No pueblo now remained 
but that of Oral be, and as the road to reach it was extremely 
dry and the distance great it was thought fit not to visit it; 
but an embassy was sent to it to which they answered 
humbly; and as there was now nothing more to do in this 
province, taking leave of the captains of all the pueblos, that 
were there present, and exhorting them to obedience, 
which they again had promised, he left this place on the 24th 
to return to El Paso. * 

Return of De Vargas and his Men to El Paso del Norte — November 

30, 1692. 

"By courier sent on the 15th by Captain Raphael Tellez 
from Alona, it was learned on the 25th that he was 
camping there in the neighborhood of the enemy, the 
Apaches; the General departed immediately with thirty men, 
to render him assistance, and by the night of the 26th they 
were together. On the 28th, the post was improved by the 
arrival of the whole body of the camp, and contracting with 
a Genizaro Indian to lead them by a shorter but unpeopled 
road to El Paso, on the 30th of November, the General left 
that point on that same day, although night had already set 
in. An Indian courier from Caquima arrived giving notice 
that the enemy, the Apaches, were coming, in pursuit of our 

* The description, which the reader has just read, of De Vargas' 
first entry sets at rest the numberless erroneous stories told by other 
historians, not wilfully, of course, but simply because none of them 
had seen De Vargas" own reports, which are that he fought a terrific 
battle and taking possession of Santa Fe on the 16th of December, 
1692, and that the '"Rosario Chapel" commemorates the victory of De 
Vargas over the Pueblo Indians in 1692. The reader has i-ead the full 
description of that most celebrated journey from the very lips of De 
Vargas, and can readily see the inaccuracy of such assertions. The 
battle referred to took place on the 29th of December, 1693, as will be 
seen further on— as to the Kosario Chapel commemorating any such 
event there is no authority for such an assertion.— The Author. 



294 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

camp. From there the march was made with greater care; 
but nevertheless, the night of the 2nd of December, the 
enemy struck our rear guard, and, cutting a portion of the 
horses, retired with them. The Pueblo of Socorro was 
reached after 10 days' march. On the eleventh which was the 
next day (all the rivers being frozen) Cenecu was reached, 
distant sixty leagues from El Paso, w^here, after having 
traveled, in going and returning, more than six hundred 
leagues, they entered with the general applause of the 
neighbors and without any ill luck, on the 20th of December. "■* 
Such were the results of this wonderful campaign, in 
which, without the expenditure of an ounce of pow^der, or 
the unsheathing of a sword, and (what is more worthy of 
praise and esteem) without the cost of a cent to the Royal 
Exchequer, innumerable peoples were brought into the 
fold of the Catholic Church, and an entire kingdom was 
restored to the King, Don Carlos II. No Spaniard was found 
in the whole province, for all those who had been there, at 
the time of its uprising, (except those who took refuge at 
Isleta or lived at the Villa) had perished. Seventy-four Mes- 
tizos and Genizaros obtained their liberty, who were found 
living from among the many who remained in captivity, and 
two thousand, two hundred and fourteen little ones were 
baptized to them. This fact is worthy of being known by all 
through this "Mercurio," says Siguenza, so that if the Gover- 
nor and Captain General, Don Diego de Vargas Zapata yLujan 
Ponce de Leon, in need be of maintaining constantly what 
he achieved with his resolution, by reason of the eulogies 
which will be heaped on him on that account, he may under- 
take henceforth even greater things. f With this most 
important narrative this chapter closes. In the next we 
shall give the history of the second entry of De Vargas (from 
De Vargas' own diary) and of the other events which 
occurred between the years 1698 and 1704. 

* The foreg-oing- report of De Vargas' first entry was translated 
almost literally to preserve its originality.- -Author. 
fApp. 4th, Villagra p. 5. 



CHAPTER V. 



Second Entry of De Vargas — First Taking of Santa Fe — The Faithful 
Juan Ye Discovers the Conspiracy — Terrible Struggle^Final 
Taking of the Villa — The Faithful Pecos Indians — Fr. Farfan Asks 
for Help — The Distribution and Cultivation of the Lands is Com- 
menced — New Uprisings— Surrender of the Apaches — Letter to 
Father Farfan — The Hostile Encounters Follow — Diplomacy of 
De Vargas Towards the Rebels — Arrival of Fr. Farfan and His 
Colonists — Campaign Against the Teguas — Founding of Santa 
Cruz de la Canada — Another Uprising — Death of Seven Priests 
andTwenty Soldiers — NewCovernor — Charges Against De Vargas. 



1693-1704. 



The first thing that De Vargas did after his arrival at El 
Paso was to send to the Viceroy a full account (the one read 
by the reader in the foregoing chapter) of the voyage, giving 
details of his success, as happy as it was unexpected in the 
pacification and reconquest of New Mexico and asking per- 
mission to repeople the province. The account of De Vargas 
was well received by the Viceroy and his advisors. The 
Viceroy immediately gave orders for the enlistment of all 
the families who desired to come to New Mexico, sixty-six 
and a half families presenting themselves in a short time who 
believed they could find better luck by venturing to live in 
unknown lands and inhabited by warlike Indians. The per- 
sons composing the aggregate of said families reached the 
number of 235, As the Viceroy was desirous of hastening 
the second entry, he wrote De Vargas a letter dated the 4th 
day of September, 1693, telling him that, in a very short 
time, the families with provisions and other necessaries for 
the estabhshment of colonies, would arrive at El Paso. 
De Vargas in the meanwhile had not lost his time, having 
gathered, through the agency of his captains, twenty-seven 



296 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

families at Zacatecas, Sombrerte, Fresnillo, and other 
points.* 

When De Vargas read the Viceroy's letter he made its con- 
tents known by means of a proclamation dated the 20th of 
September 1693, ordering his soldiers and people to 
make, without delay, the preparations to undertake the 
joarney. The stir caused by the proclamation resulted in 
the enlistment of 100 soldiers and 70 families making the 
number, in toto, of 800 individuals in troops, men, colonists, 
priests, women and children. Among the colonists came 
artificers and mechanics of all trades and well provided with 
livestock, implements and tools for the work in the shops, 
the cultivation of lands, and labor in the mines, but with few 
food provisions. On the 12th day of October, 1693, De Vargas 
reviewed his army and colonists, and finding everything in 
perfect condition, gave the order to march the next day with- 
out waiting for the re-enforcements of troops sent him by the 
Viceroy, as we have said. 

The Journey as Undertaken. 

At sunrise, October 13, 1693, an order having been left by 
De Vargas for the advance of those that were coming from 
Mexico, the great caravan set out on its march with its dis- 
tinguished General at its head. De Vargas was accompanied 
by seventeen Franciscan priests whose names were: Fr. 
Salvador de San Antonio, Custiodio, (Superior); Fr. Juan de 
Zavaleta, Fr. Frani^isco Jesiis Maria, Fr. Juan de Alpuente, 
Fr. Juan Muiios de Castro, Fr. Juan Diaz, Fr. Antonio Car- 
bonela, Fr. Francisco Corvera, Fr. Geronimo Prieto, Fr. Juan 
Antonio del Corral, Fr. Antonio Vohomondo, Fr. Antonio 
Obregon, Fr. Jos^ Maria, Fr. Buenaventura Contreras, Fr. 
Jose Narvaez, Fr. Valverde, and Fr. Diego Zeinos. 

The scarcity of provisions was felt at the seventeenth 
journey; the caravan being unable to travel much every 
day, the distance covered between the 13th day of October 
and the 4th day of November, was not what it should have 
been. Hunger and fatigue w ere now causing havoc among 

*Diary of De Varg-a.s now in the archives at Washington, D. C, 
of which the author has a copy. 

Note— The foreg-oing- report of De Varg-as" first entry was trans- 
lated almost literally to preserve its orig-inality.— x\uthor. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 297 

the colonists, especially among the children and the women, 
thirty of them had already perished between those two dates. 
The slow marches, and the inconveniences which the Span- 
iards had, of necessity to experience, on account of the 
people coming in three great divisions were the principal 
causes of the deaths and sufferings. To remedy the sad 
state of things among his people, De Vargas decided, when he 
had reached the vicinity of Socorro, to march on the vanguard 
accompanied only by his troops and officers at a quick step, 
with the object of obtaining provisions for the colonists and 
their families, ordering the colonists before leaving them, 
to hasten their steps as much as possible, until they arrived 
<it the pueblo of Santo Domingo where he would wait for 
them. He then pushed ahead on the 4th of November, 
reaching in a tew days the Provinces of Tutuhaco (Isieta),- 
Tiguex, Jemes, and Tanos, having been well received in all 
the pueblos, except at the Pueblos of Cochiti, Santo Domingo, 
and Jemes, where it was hinted to him, that supported by the 
Tanos and the Teguas (of Pojoaque and Nambe etc.,) they 
were prepared to tight with the Spaniards. 

De Vargas was able to collect a sufficient quantity of corn 
from the friendly pueblos of San Felipe, Cia, Santa Ana and 
Pecos, which he at once sent to the colonists. The friendl}^ 
pueblos, San Felipe, Cia, Santa Ana, and Pecos, contributed 
not only with food provisions, but each pueblo offered its 
contingent of warriors to help De Vargas subdue the rebels. 
A re-enforcement of 200 men had already overtaken the 
colonists, so that when the succors, which De Vargas sent 
them, reached there, they were already traveling with ease. 
They arrived at Santo Domingo at the beginning of December 
1693: here De Vargas was waiting for them. From Santo 
Domingo he set out for Santa Fe on the 15th of December, 
reaching said Villa the day following, without meeting any 
resistance whatsoever. 

First Taking of Santa Fe — December 16-1693. 

On the 16th of December, De Vargas entered the Villa 
carrying along with him, the Father Custodio, and a few 
soldiers and the banner or standard which he had used before. 
In the center of the Plaza he had theTanos Indians assembled, 



298 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

the said Indians, being in possession as lords of the Villa, 
and, after making them plant a cross, formal possession was 
again taken of the province with religious ceremonies. The 
description of that solemn act is given to us by DeVargas in 
these words: 

"December 16th, 1693"^ — "Entry Into This Town of Santa Fe, by Said 
Governor and Captain General. 

"On the 16th day of the month of December, date and year 
above, I, the said Governor and Captain General, about the 
eleventh hour of said day, made my entry into this town of 
Santa Fe, and coming in sight of the walled village where the 
Teguas and Tanos reside, with the squadron on the march and 
in company of the very illustrious corporation of this the 
said town and kingdom, its sheriff, color-bearing alderman, 
the captain, Don Bernardino Duran de Chavez, carrying the 
standard referred to in these acts and under which this land 
was conquered, we arrived at the square where we found 
the said natives congregated, the women apart from the men, 
all unarmed and abstaining from any hostile demonstration, 
but instead behaving themselves with great composure, and 
on proffering to them our greeting, saying "Praise to Him," 
several times, they answered "forever;" and seeing the 
approach on foot of the very reverend Father Custodian, 
Friar Salvador de San Antonio and in his train the fifteen 
monks, priests and reverend father missionaires and the lay 
brothers of our Father, St. Francis, chanting on their march 
divers psalms, I got down from my horse and my example 
was followed by the said corporation, corporals and officers 
of war and by the ensign of the royal standard in company 
with the said high sheriff and color-bearing alderman, all 
having gone out with the purpose of receiving the said rev- 
erend Fathers, who, in union with their reverend Father Cus- 
todian, came singing in processional order, and then I made 
due obeisance as I was passing on my way to the entrance of 
said village and town and the same thing was done by my 
followers, and in tfie middle of the square a cross had been 
raised, where all present knelt down and sang divers psalms 
and prayers including the Te Deum, and in conclusion the 
Litany of Our Lady, and the said very reverend Father Cus- 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 299' 

todian, attuning his voice, sang with such joy and fervor 
that almost everyone without exception was deeply moved by 
the happiness of hearing in such place the praises of our 
Lord God and his Most Holy Mother. And after he had 
sung the hymn three times, I offered my congratulations to 
said ver}?^ reverend Father and the rest, telling them that not- 
withstanding that last year at the time of my happy con- 
quest I had given possession to the very reverend Father, 
President Friar Francisco Corvero, who was one of the 
Fathers who came at the time as chaplains to said army, 
which said reverend Father President had witnessed and 
accepted, and in this manner and in the name of this order 
and in favor of his sacred religion would do it again and 
would grant it to him anew with great pleasure, considering 
the great resignation with which all, together with their very 
reverend Father, do so heartily and freely agree to employ 
themselves in the administration of the holy sacraments in. 
this said newly conquered kingdom; to which the said rev- 
erend Father answered, tendering his thanks for himself and 
all his Order, and that by the use of said grant, invested and 
given by me, the said Governor and Captain General, they 
had enough for the maintenance of their rights, much more 
than when they entered immediately in the administration 
of the missions above mentioned; and then I spoke to said 
corporation and told them I restored to them the possession 
of their town, and that likewise they ought and should give 
me, the said Governor and Captain General, testimonials of 
having taken the same, entering again therein, and of the 
pacification of said Indians and their submission to the 
Divine and Humane Majesty; in the same manner, to the 
said natives in the plaza of said village, I told and repeated 
what our Lord the King had sent me as to the news I gave his 
Royal Majesty of their surrender last year, with orders that 
that this kingdom should be repeopled; that with the infor- 
mation I had given of my having pardoned them and of their 
obedience which was the cause of said pardon, all his dis- 
pleasure had vanished and he would call them again his chil- 
dren, and for that reason he had sent many priests in order 
that they might be Christians as they were, and that like- 
wise he sent me with the soldiers they saw, for the purpose 



300 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

of defending them against their enemies; that I came not to 
ask anything of them, but only for two things: That they 
should be Christians as they ought, hearing mass and saying 
their prayers, and their sons and women attending to the 
catechism as the Spaniards did; and the second was that 
they might be safe from the Apaches and friendly with all 
and that this was my sole object in coming and not to ask or 
take away anything: and the said very reverend Custodian 
assured them of my good heart and the good intentions 
which animated the .Spaniards, which were not as they had 
supposed; that is that I, the said Governor and Captain 
General, had come to kill them as they said, he would not 
have come, and so they should give no credit to anything but 
what I and their reverend Father told them; besides I 
ordered them that if they had among them any bad and 
malicious Indian they should tie him up and bring him to 
me to ascertain the truth about what he said, and in case of 
falsehood I would order his instant execution, and that in 
this way we could live as brothers and be very happy, and 
after this talk we went away again, leaving them their vil- 
lage, to seek a more protected site, the soil being covered 
with snow, and only about mid-day I found in the outflows 
and slopes a table land and mountain susceptible of some 
repair, and therein I, the said Governor and Captain General, 
established my camp, despising the dwelling place, a tower 
house, which had been repaired for my occupation, having 
in the same a fire place, which a resident told me belonged 
to said house and as such to himself; to which I replied he 
might repair to the same, and in testimony whereof, regard- 
ing said entry, I signed my name in company with the ver}^ 
illustrious corporation and war officers, likewise the two 
secretaries who were present therein in said town. Dated 
ut sujjra.^' 

"Seal Diego de Vargas Zapata Lujan Ponce de Leon. 

"Lorenzo de Madrid — Fernando de Chavez — J. de Leyba — 
Lazaro de Meznuia — Roque Madrid — Joseph Miera — Xavier 
de Ortega. Secretary of the Town Corporation, 

"Juan de Almasan. 

"Before me: Antonio de Valverde, 

"Secretary of Governor and of War." 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 301 

"I attest the above: Antonio Rael de Aguilar, one of the 
Secretaries of Government and War of the Governor and 
Captain General." 

Faithful Juan Ye Discovers The Conspiracy. 

For several days the Spaniards remained encamped in the 
place indicated, but De Vargas did not cease to make recog- 
nizances in all directions for two reasons: (1) To find out 
if there was in all the pueblos sufficient corn for the 
subsistence of the Indians and the Spaniards; and 
(2) to sound the Indians in the matter of again rendering 
obedience to him. While De Vargas was thus maturing 
plans that would lead to a prompt, pacific, and permanent 
conquest of the Tanos Indians, the Picuris and Teguas were 
plotting clandestinely another uprising. De Vargas daily 
visited the Villa, but did not notice anything to indicate re- 
bellion on the part of the Tanos. In one of those visits it 
became necessary to inspect the chapel of San Miguel (until 
our days used by the Christian Brothers of St. Michael's 
College) which had been almost totally destroyed by the 
Indians in 1680 when Otermin left; and after he had given 
the proper orders for needed repairs, he met Juan Ye, the 
Governor of Pecos, the loyal friend of the Spaniards who, 
just as he had done with Otermin thirteen years before, 
revealed to De Vargas the secret of the conspiracy that was 
being hatched by the said pueblos to destroy the Spaniards. 
When the captains of De Vargas, Roque Madrid, Jose Arias, 
Antonio Jorge, Lazaro de Misquio, Rafael Tellez Jir6n, Juan 
de Dios Lucero de Godoy, Fernando Duran y Chavez, Diego 
Varela, Francisco de Anaya, Juan Ruiz, Alfonzo Rael de 
Aguilar, and Antonio Velarde, together with officers of the 
township, *became aware of the conspiracy that was being 
hatched against the Spaniards, and as they were suffering 
very much on account of the cold season of the year, they 
laid a petition before De Vargas urging him to dislodge the 
Tanos from the Villa, so the Spanish families might enter to 
dwell in the houses that had been constructed by Onate and 

*Of all those Captains there are yet in New Mexico thousands of 
descendants.— The Author. 



502 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

his colonists. The petition was based upon the imperative 
necessity imposed by the inclemency of the weather, and 
because sickness and death were spreading among the 
colonists more and more every day. De Vargas with that 
magnanimity of soul which so distinguished him from his 
predecessors, preferred to suffer the rigors of the cold season 
rather than force an outbreak, believing that the Tanos 
would gradually leave for their pueblo, Galisteo, but he soon 
■discovered the perfidy and duplicity of said Indians. On the 
27th of December, 1693, a blind Indian accompanied by 
another Indian friend, who was leading him, came to the 
tent of De Vargas and informed De Vargas that, in a day or 
two, the Teguas andPicuris Indians would arrive to unite with 
the Tanos, to drive out the Spaniards. De Vargas who 
was never caught napping redoubled his precautions; 
summoned a council of war, and, following the unanimous 
opinion of all his people and troops, prepared for the battle 
which was to seal forever the fate of the rebellious and 
traitorous lodians, and the insurance of the stable civiliza- 
tion of the province. 

Terrible Strife — Final Taking of the Villa — The Faithful Pecos Indians. 

On the next day, the twenty-eighth of December, the In- 
dians gave their warhoop; walled all the entrances to the 
Villa (they had it already well walled all around), fortified 
themselves well in ramparts and filled the roofs with armed 
Indians. At the sight of these demonstrations, De Vargas 
raised his camp and placed it at the foot of the Villa walls in 
such a shape as to furnish the Spaniards a good camp and 
with the Villa well besieged. De Vargas sent on the 29th 
an emissary to the Governor and Chief of the Indians telling 
him that only by surrendering himself, and the other In- 
dians would they escape death, which would be meted out 
to them if they insisted on their rebelliousness. Bolsas, the 
Chief, answered with defiance, insults and blasphemies. The 
army, which had been re-enforced by the 200 soldiers, of 
whom we have already spoken, was made aware of the 
answer sent back by Bolsas; where upon a live desire of 
■exterminating the rebels burned within the Spaniards. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 303 

Without waiting any longer, the measures were quickly 
taken, which the crisis demanded. The order of assault was 
arranged, the respective divisions were placed, with their 
Captains at their heads in front of the altar, which had been 
improvised for the occasion; and, De Vargas kneeling in 
front, they all made, in a loud voice, an act of contrition, and 
received absolution from the priest who preached to them 
a tender and patriotic sermon. At the end of the imposing 
ceremony they rose up and forming in order of battle, they 
followed the Standard of their Sovereign upon which they 
placed the image of "Our Lady of Remedies,'" and rushed 
upon the Villa with the intrepidity of the Spanish soldiers of 
those times. A great number of friendly Indians from the 
Pueblo of Pecos were fighting on the side of the Spaniards, 
and as courageously as the most veteran soldiers; the battle 
was most obstinate; it lasted the entire day without either 
party showing any lessening of briskness or resolution. At 
noon when the battle was at its height the armies of the 
Teguas and Tanos came in sight on the hills which sur- 
rounded the city on the northwest side. The cavalry troop 
charged on them causing them a great slaughter and obli- 
ging those, who were left, to flee preciptiatedly. The ob- 
scurity of. the night put a stop to the bloody fray, but the 
Spaniards "slept upon their arms," and at daybreak re- 
sumed the assault upon the Villa taking the Indians by sur- 
prise; they scaled the walls at the shout of "Santiago,'" and, 
with frightful celerity, rushed upon the rebels who ran to 
and fro so scared and in such disorder that they obstructed 
one another. When the Spaniards had taken the principal 
trenches, the locks of the gates were burst and the main 
body of the army entered following the General who had 
been the first one to set foot within the walls. Many In- 
dians were able to escape, but a great number were left 
dead. Their governor hanged himself, before the Spaniards 
could capture him. Seventy Indian warriors were made 
prisoners, among them Chief "Bolsas,"and they were all shot. 
The number of women and children captured was four hun- 
dred. De Vargas partitioned the women and children among 
the Spanish families, the gift being subject to the approval 



304 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

of the King. De Vargas imposed upon the recipients of 
their captives duties of fathers towards their sons.* Gra- 
naries filled with corn and other provisions were found in 
the Villa, and also some head of cattle and sheep, with which 
the Spaniards could subsist for a long while, and continue 
the war against the rebel Indians of the provinces of Los 
Tanos and Teguas and their allies, against whom he had to 
wage war until he completely humiliated them in the Autumn 
of the year 1694. 

Fr. Farfan Asks for Help — Cultivation of Lands Commenced — New 
Uprisings- 
While the captains of DeVargas were out reconnoitering 
the condition of the land, and the pueblos by different ways, 
DeVargas was framing plans to insure the subsistence and 
prosperity of his army and colonists who were now domiciled 
at the Villa. He made a partition of the lands in the nearby 
places of the Villa in February 1694; he distributed corn 
seed to the camps for planting, and ordered the lands to be 
sown, giving the husbandmen a permanent escort that they 
might work without any danger of loosing their lives in the 
continued assaults from the Indians. While DeVargas was 
thus engaged in making repairs and in improving the con- 
dition of the colony, adverse and alarming reports were 
brought to him with respect to the operations of war, which 
the Taos, Picuris, and Tegua Indians, who had joined the 
Jemes and Queres, were making. At the root of the insur- 
rection came the realization. On a sudden a large number 
of Indians from those pueblos appeared; they assaulted the 
colonists, and the escort they met on the sown fields but did 
no greater damage than to carry away some horses and 
mules. From that day on the incursions and depredations 

*'This noble and Christian act of De Vargas has been perverted by 
a great many historians who, never having seen the authentic authority, 
have fallen into the proverbial error of stating distorted facts. The 
latest writer, Mr. R. E. Twitchell, has reiterated the injustice by declar- 
ing thus: "Four hundred women and children were taken and sold into 
slavery'' ( Twitchell' s Leading Facts on New Mexico History Vol. 1 p. 
393). Thus has the character of one of the greatest and noblest of the 
conquistadores — certainly the cleanest and uprightest of them all — 
been besmirched.— The Author. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 305 

of the Indians, became quite frequent until DeVar^as was 
constrained to adopt their tactics, organizing campaigns of 
soldiers and colonists which often attacked the rebel pueblos 
and their allies, despoiling them of the stolen stock, making 
their children captives, and gathering all the corn they could. 

Battle of the Mesa Prieta. 

DeVargas was well convinced that if he did not undertake 
an active campaign in person, the uprising of 1680 would be 
repeated, but, as he was waiting for the re-enforcements 
which Father Farfan was bringmg from Mexico he delayed 
the movement from day to day. The frequent robberies and 
murders, however, perpetrated by the Indians, compelled 
him at last to take that step without waiting for Father 
Farfan. In the mesa near and to the south of the Pueblo of 
San Ildefonzo (known as the "Mesa Prieta'") the Teguas, 
Taos, Tanos, and Jemes Indians were entrenched. From 
there they S' nt daily parties to steal stock and kill Spaniards. 
In February, De Vargas reorganized an army of 100 men, 
and, carrying along two pieces of artillery, he attacked them 
on the tenth. The combat lasted almost the entire day 
without any favorable result and with the loss of 15 Indians, 
and on the side of the Spaniards 25 wounded. The next 
day De Vargas pushed the siege still closer, and, with new 
re-enforcements, brought by the soldiers who had, the day 
before taken the wounded to the Villa, re-attacked the im- 
pregnable mesa, in a battle of six hours, without being able 
to dislodge the rebels. The Indians, however, were unable 
to resist much longer, owing to the fact that provisions and 
drinking water were becoming scare, and for that reason the 
Indians made a desperate effort the next day to defeat the 
Spaniards, hundreds of them coming down; but only to be 
driven back by the Spaniards and obliged to take refuge on 
the rock with the rest. The siege thus lasted until the 19th, 
when, on account of scarcity of provisions and ammunitions 
of war, De Vargas abandoned the camp, and returned to 
Santa Fe, with the trophies he had captured, and leaving 40 
Indians dead. The trophies consisted of more than 100 
horses and mules, about 150 fanegas (a "fanega" is equal to 
three bushels) of corn. With that action the campaign against 



306 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

the Teguas and their aUies ended for a short time, but in the 
southeastern part of the territory the Indians of Cochiti, 
Jemes and their allies were hostile, and De Vargas proceeded 
against them without delay. With the aid of the friendly 
Queres he was enabled to disperse them, althoughhostilities 
did not cease with that campaign. De Vargas returned to 
Santa Fe about the middle of March to consult with the offi- 
cials of his staff upon a final plan of campaign which he again 
undertook in April, as we shall say hereafter. 

The Apaches Surrender — Letter of Fr. Farfan De Vargas Gives 
Them an Interview. 

On the 27th of March (1694), the Governor of Pecos, Juan 
Ye, and three Apaches came to Santa Fe to visit De Vargas, 
and the Apaches to render obedience. This event was of 
great comfort to the Spaniards. 

The interview appears in De Vargas" diary (from which all 
that is narrated in this chapter is derived) in these words: 

"At twenty-six days of the present month of March of the 
date and year (1694), Don Juan el de Ye arrived at this Villa 
of Santa Fe, bringing in his company three Apaches; and, 
being in my presence, in their language through DomingcTde 
Herrera who acted as interpreter, said that they belonged to 
the outspread encampments of the Apache nation of the 
plains; that before the kingdom was lost, (1680), and the 
Spaniards went out on that account, they had their friendship 
with them, and in attention to it, they often came and went 
out in peace, seeing in their ransoms that not much use or 
interest accrued to the ones or the others, through the 
medium of the traffic and barter, and that having reached the 
Pueblo of Pecos, three tents of their said nation and encamp- 
ment, and having received from the said Pecos information 
of the return of the Spaniards to this kingdom, they had 
come with pleasure to give me their obedience as their gov- 
ernor, to know me, and to ask my leave, that, by means of 
that security, they might return at once to inform the said 
people of their nation and encampment by the end of the 
season, which is by October, that they might believe that the 
return of said Spaniards was a certainty so they might see 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 307 

in said Pueblo of Pecos, the said people they had left in said 
three tents; and I. the said Governor and Captain General, 
promised them ample protection, and I treated the said three 
Indians graciously, caressed them and gave them presents, 
and, for their satisfaction, I commanded the Aide-de-Camp, 
Lorenzo Madrid, with the said interpreter, and the Adjutant, 
Antonio Velarde and soldiers and neighbors, to accom- 
pany them to Pecos who, having arrived at said pueblo, were 
received by said natives and said Apaches who were very glad 
to see them, and they paid them liberally buffalo meat and deer 
skins which they were bringing along, saying that they were 
going immediately and that they would be back at the said 
time of October, the greater part of that encampment, at the 
said Pueblo of Pecos, where they would come down for the 
said ransom, as they did at the time of the said Spaniards, 
who went out, and that it may appear patent the said Gov- 
ernor and Captain General, and the said Aide-de-Camp, and 
Adjutant, signed it with me, together with my Secretary of 
Government and War, 

"D. Diego de Vargas, etc. (Seal). 

"Lorenzo Madrid. (Seal). 

"Antonio Velarde. (Seal). 
Before me: 

Alphonso Rael de Agqilar, 
"Sec. of Gov. and War." 

Letter from F. Farfan. 

Three days after the alluded interview, De Vargas received 
a letter from Father Farfan asking succor for himself and 
the people who came with him. Bancroft says that De 
Vargas received Fr. Farfan's letter on the 23d of the month* 
of January (1694), but in that also he is in error. Archbishop 
Salpointe,t based probably on said authority of Bancroft, or 
of Prince, and the other English speaking authors affirm the 
same error i. e., that said letter of Fr. Farfan came to the 
hands of De Vargas in the month of January. It was not so. 

* Bancroft: "Ariz, and N. M." 206. 

t Salpointe: "Soldiers of the Cross," 82. 



308 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OP NEW MEXICO. 

Vargas himself gives us in his said diary the correct infor- 
mation, saying: 

"In this Villa of Santa Fe at 30 days of the month of 
March, one thousand six hundred and ninety four, at the 
hour of four o'clock in the afternoon, the squad corporal, 
Diego Servin, arrived with a letter from Rev. Father Fray 
Francisco Farfan, General Procurator of the missions, and 
Custodio (Superior) of the conversion of San Pablo of our 
Father St. Francis of this said kingdom and province of New 
Mexico with letters addressed to me, their date atTabalaopo, 
the 6th instant, (March), and year in which he states by it 
that he is coming in charge of the wagons and bringing the 
sixty six families and a half which the most excellent Lord 
Viceroy and Count of Galves, on the l(3th of September, one 
thousand six hundred and ninety three, delivered to his 
charge as his Sindicate General at the court and city of 
Mexico and he tells me in said letter to send him immediate 
succors of provisions and mules for his prompt departure 
from El Paso del Rio del Norte, when he arrives there because 
he states he brings only a wagon load of flour and another 
of corn meal which will be hardly sufficient to last him 
during his stay at that place to make the necessary repairs 
to said wagons." 

De Vargas had already shortly after his return from San 
Ildefonzo, sent to Father Farfan, of provisions to about one 
hundred fanegas of corn from the corn he had brought from 
San Ildefonso, of which we have already spoken. De Vargas, 
however, gave immediate answer to Father Farfan's letter, 
sending him at the same time, the corn the Father called for. 
De Vargas' letter reads thus: "My Rev. Fatlier and Lord, 
answering your Paternity's letter with a pleasure equal to 
the esteem which my anxiety desires for you in these re- 
mote parts, I dispense with exaggeration when with the 
experience you have of them, it would be an inadvertence of 
mine to say to your Paternity how important it would have 
been that those families were already settled; for at the 
mere sight of their entry and the news about them which 
the frontier nations should have had, many good conse- 
quences should have followed. The accidents which your 
Paternity has had leave me sorrowful, and as you have 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 309 

already reached that town of El Paso, I appreciate your 
efforts in the prompt execution of your desire to see this 
kingdom, a thing which, it is clear will cause you to come to 
the acknowledgement that it is necessary to take advantage 
of the time that we may profit thereby, employing the pro- 
visions on the road; as well as to insure the crossing of the 
river before the high water makes it impossible and also that 
I may be helped with those arms and ammunitions, so that 
these rebels may recognize the power of his Majesty, whom 
God guard: and our entry as well as the coming of the 
Spaniards may be insured, their Captains are saying 
that we come out to go back immediately, and so 
I request your Paternity not to delay in coming, remember- 
ing that Fr. Padre San Buenaventura leaves on the 2nd of 
April with his thirteen wagons, and has asked me to help 
him with fifteen mules in order to better facilitate said 
journey. He carries one hundred fanegas, of corn, meas- 
ured and sacked, which he will deliver to your Paternity as 
provisions for those families, and it seems to me that your 
Paternity will be able to reach San Diego with said provi- 
sions and wagons." 

De Vargas after making other suggestions of less import- 
ance closes his letter, saying: 

"Your Paternity asks me to dispatch to you 100 mules 
which is impossible; even the fifteen I give, I do it to serve 
said father and that your Paternity may have said 100 fanegas 
of corn, which Father Buenaventura leaves with you, and 
together with the freights which his wagons may take from 
your Paternity for the conduction of those families from that 
Town of El Paso to this said Villa, and also because the mules 
I have have alone done all the work, both saddled by the war 
men in the repeated sallies to the rebel pueblos, as well as the 
transportation of their corn, and also in helping to guard 
the horses which only by such means was possible to keep 
them in such an excessive work. And so your Paternity 
will please excuse me, and help yourself the best you can 
with the mules which said father Fr. Buenaventura takes 
for you, and that you may be assured in all, and may have 
no doubt, I send Zervin with the wagons; for I promise my- 
self that your Paternity will be shortly in these places, and 



310 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

the time of your delay will affect me very much because of 
what you may need. Wishing with all sincerity that Our 
Lord may grant your Paternal Reverence many happy years. 
I thank you for the present you sent of rice and shrimp. 
Done in this Villa of Santa Fe, in its fort and garrison on 
the first of April, 1694. 

"Your most attentive friend and servant who kisses your 
hands." 

'D. Diego de Vargas etc., (Seal)" 



t< 



With the reading of De Vargas" letters, the reader will see 
the almost incredible sufferings which the colonists of New 
Mexico had to stand, and the constancy with which, though 
surrounded by enemies, and with the utmost shortage of 
ammunitions of war, food, provisions, and of men and arms, 
they persevered until they succeeded in finally subduing so 
many thousands of Indians, and in their pacification, and 
christianization. Truly those Spanish priests, colonists and 
military men were great men in the full meaning of the word. 
Let us now turn again our attention to the Villa of Santa Fe 
and the continual strifes of its brave defenders against the 
Indian rebels. 

The Hostile Encounters Continue. 

While De Vargas was receiving the obedience of the 
Apaches, the Jemes and Cochiti Indians were waging war, 
with the help of the Acoma, Moquis and Zunis, against the 
Queres, Cias and Santa Anas. The Indians of the friendly 
pueblos sent a committee of Quere Indians to ask for aid, 
a thing which De Vargas granted them, and by going him- 
self with quite a number of soldiers on April 12th in pursuit 
of the rebels who were well intrenched in the Mesa of Ciene- 
guilla. On the 16th, he assaulted them and after an obs- 
tinate battle he dislodged them from their new pueblo with 
the loss of twenty rebel warriors, and the capture of three 
hundred women and children, 70 horses and about 1,000 head 
of sheep. The same day the Teguas had attacked the Span- 
iards at Santa F^, but they were defeated by Captain Gra- 
nillo, who was acting as commandant in the absence of De 
Vargas. At Cieneguilla the rebels, who had come to re-enforce 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 311 

the conquered, assaulted De Vargas again causing the death 
of two soldiers and recovering 150 captives but were finally 
routed by the Spaniards. With such brilliant victories De 
Vargas thought that the rebels would not delay in submit- 
ting; he ordered the improvised pueblo where the conquered 
had lodged themselves, to be burned and returned to Santa 
Fe on the 27th of the month. Right after his arrival he 
made, on the 28th a second distribution of lands, and of the 
captives andanimals captured, to the army, the priests and the 
colonists. On the 29th of the same month he resolved to send 
Indian emissaries to the Pueblos of Zuni, Moqui, and to the 
other rebel pueblos. He did this by sending an emissary to 
each province. As the letters he sent to each Pueblo were 
identical, one of them is reproduced here, the one sent to Zuni, 
for the better information of the reader. The letter follows: 
"My Son, Co-Father, Governor and Captains of War of that 
Penol of Zuiii: I desire very much to embrace you, as I have 
told my Co-Father Bentura who carries this (letter). You 
must all know my good heart, and that I love you as children 
of mine, and I advise you that the Lord Viceroy was highly 
pleased and sends me with the priests to this kingdom at 
once with the Spaniards and their wives and children, and 
many soldiers to defend you, and also that you be certain 
that there is only one God and the King and that only I shall 
command you. My Co-father Bentura has told me that the 
Apaches are your enemies, and also of the ambush played on 
you by the Moquls together with the Yutas and Apaches 
Coninos, and so it seems to me that as soon as I go to you, as 
I shall as soon as I may be able to leave this Villa, in order to 
see and meet your foes, and make them retire, so that after 
that they shall not have time and occasion to again attack you , 
as they have done, at the time you were planting in the fields, 
and they will not take aw^ay from you with ease the stock and 
horses you have, and they shall not kill you and your children 
and wives, and so it seems to me that this summer you can 
plant those lands and you can come and live in these deserted 
pueblos of the lower river, when you see fit, and in them you 
will be secured and well pleased because they are near to 
this Viha, and the Spaniards will buy from you w^hat you 
may reap, and with the cloth they shall give you, you will 



312 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

have enough to barter with the friendly Apaches for buffalo 
robes and thick elk skins which you need, and you shall 
advise me with the said Bentura of your resolution. I shall 
not endeavor to make you come down, but I simply tell you 
my opinion because I love you much, and ma}^ God grant you 
many years. Done at Santa Fe, today, Thursday, twenty- 
ninth of April, one thousand six hundred and ninety-four. 

"Your Governor and Captain General who loves you much 
and desires to see you. 
"Don Diego de Vargas Zapata Lujan Ponce ue Le6n." 

(Seal). 

The diplomatic efforts of De Vargas did not achieve the 
results which he desired. The uprisings continued to mul- 
tiply. On every side the rebels harrassed the Spaniards 
and the friendly pueblos so that De Vargas and his handful 
of valiant soldiers had httle or no rest. As the author says 
"valiant soldiers," he desires, as a homage to truth, and to do 
justice to the brave Indians, who, at all times and places, and 
under all circumstances, gave convincing proofs of their 
sincere loyalty fighting on the side of the Spaniards against 
the rebel and traitorous Indians, to say a few words in their 
favor. The author has not yet been able to find a single 
historian who dedicates a word of praise and admiration to 
those Indian heroes. De Vargas and his valiant and warlike 
soldiers would have, perhaps, paid in the end with their lives 
for the glory they were seeking, had not the Pueblos of Pecos, 
Cia, Santa Ana, San Felipe and the Queres been loyal to them. 
As Cortes, without the aid of his Indian friends, would never 
have subdued the noble hero Cuahutemoc, the greatest hero 
in the conquest of Mexico, the expedition of De Vargas would 
have ended in a fatal failure without the opportune and valu- 
able aid of Juan Y4 and his sympathizing Indians. It is but 
just, then, that history forget not the debt which civilization 
owes to those good Indians, perpetuating the memory of their 
exploits as has been done with the Castilian heroes we have 
alluded to. Blessed, then, be the memory of Juan Y6 and the 
other Indians who, with a disinterested patriotism co-oper- 
ated in achieving the civilization and christianization of New 
Mexico! 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 313 

Battle Between Pueblo Indians — Remains of Fray Juan de Jesus Dis- 
covered. 

On the north of Santa Fe, the Spaniards continued strug- 
ghng, helped by the Pecos, against the Teguas who were 
found, as we have seen, together with many of the Picuris, 
Taos and Tanos, entrenched on the summit of the Penol of 
San Ildefonso. In the southern part of the territory, the 
Jemes Indians and their alhes gave no truce to the friendly 
Pueblos. In one of the battles fought in May, the Queres came 
out victorious, causing many losses to their enemies and cap- 
turing many of them. Among the captured prisoners were 
live who knew in which place the remains of Father Fray de 
Jesus had been buried at Jemes. These Indians were sent 
to De Vargas, who got one of them to promise to show the 
place where the remains of said father were buried and also 
to show where the ornaments, chalices and missal were to be 
found, in virtue of which promise, which was faithfully ful- 
filled, as will be seen further on, De Vargas spared his life, 
ordering the shooting of the other four, one of whom was 
also spared, through the intercession of the Governor of 
Pecos, Juan Ye. 

Arrival of Fr. Farfan and His Colonists — Campaign Against the 
Teguas — Recovery of the Remains of Fr. Juan de Jesus — Remains 
Brought to Santa Fe — Second Battle of Mesa Prieta. 

At the end of July (1694), Fr. Farfdn and the colonists 
arrived at Santa Fe. De Vargas had already determined 
to make a settlement with those colonists, sending them to 
the place we know today by the name of "Santa Cruz de la 
Canada,'" but he had to wait until the next year to gain time 
for the termination of the war, for that reason the colonists 
had to remain a long while in Santa Fe. De Vargas next 
undertook an active campaign against the pueblos of the 
north, but his first voyage was divested of any importance, 
because he found the pueblos of San Juan, Picuris, and Taos 
abandoned, wherefore he returned to Santa Fe for the pur- 
pose of attacking the Indians who were on the Penol of 
San Ildefonso (Mesa Prieta). He started from Santa Fe 
to Jemes in August accompanied by the Fathers, Fr. 



314 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Alpuente, Antonio Obregon and Antonio Carbonel, and the 
Indian who had promised to show the grave of Fr. Juan de 
Jesus. The Jemes Indians had already promised obedience 
and submission. They unburied the remains, and the orna- 
ments and other things were dehvered to them; they brought 
the remains of said father to Santa P6 where burial was 
given to them in the church of the Spaniards on the 11th of 
said month. In the month of September De Vargas re- 
turned with 100 soldiers and 150 friendly Indians from the 
Pueblos Queres, Jemes, and Pecos and attacked the Teguas 
on the Mesa of San Ildenfonso. The battle was quite 
obstinate, but the Teguas were finally compelled to sur- 
render. De Vargas promised not to execute those who had 
been captured, and to allow the vanquished Indians to bury 
their dead, at the pueblo, under the condition that they 
should submit to his authority and reoccupy the pueblo. 
This they promised and promptly complied. On the ^th of 
the month of September the Taos Indians surrendered to 
Captain Don Diego and w^ere allow^ed to return to their 
pueblo after having sworn submission and obedience. In 
October De Vargas made a trip to San Juan and Picuris; he 
engaged the Indians of these pueblos at San Juan, where 
they had gathered, capturing 8-4 of them and some women 
and children, and made them all submit to his authority. 
In the same manner those of Cuyamunge, Pojoaque, Nambe, 
and Santa Clara were made to render obedience, so that 
with the surrender of Jemes and the pueblos of the north, 
the province was deemed pacified, whereupon steps were 
taken leading to the resettling of Santa Cruz and other 
points previously peopled by the colonists of Oiiate. 

Assignment of Priests to the Pueblos — Founding and Resettling of 
Santa Cruz and Other Points. 

De Vargas and Father Juan Munoz de Castro, who acted 
as Custodio, being now satisfied that the lives of the priests 
were no longer in danger in the pueblos, and having first 
obtained the promise from all the Indian Governors that 
they would never again rebel, De Vargas and said Custodio 
undertook the assignment of priests. To Fr. Corvera were 
assigned the pueblos of San Ildefonso and Jacona, with his 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. Sl^ 

residence at the first one; to Fr. Jeronimo Prieto, those of 
San Juan and Santa Clara; and those of San Lorenzo and San 
Cristobal, to Fr. Antonio Obregon. From San Cristobal 
De Vargas returned to Santa Fe, going from there to the 
other pueblos, and leaving a priest for every two pueblos. 
Having made the assignation of the priests, De Vargas 
turned his attention to the establishment of the colonies. 

Re-Founding of Santa Cruz — 1695. 

The first point repeopled was Santa Cruz de la Canada, 
which v^as one of those that had been settled by the colonists 
of Oiiate. The families which had come in June, 1694, with 
Fr. Farfdn, supra, were assigned to that place. De Vargas 
accompanied the colonists, leaving with them Fr. Antonio 
Morena for the administration of their spiritual wants. 
After the repeopling of Santa Cruz, other families were sent 
to ocher points which had been previously occupied by the 
colonists of Onate. De Vargas, after this, commenced to 
prepare a detailed report to the Viceroy of all he had done, 
which report he forwarded to the Viceroy on the 24th of 
November, 1695. At the same time, he asked to be 
re-appointed Governor and Captain General, for his first 
appointment was about to expire in the coming year, 1696. 

Another Uprising- Death of Seven Priests and Twenty Soldiers — 1696- 

The colonists being now distributed, as aforesaid, the pue- 
blos of Santo Domingo, Cochiti, Tanos, Teguas, Taos, Picuris 
and Queres, (which had been friends before) thought that no 
occasion so propitious could again present itself for the com- 
plete annihilation of the Spaniards. They agreed, and pre- 
pared, in secret, a rebellion which broke out on the 4th of 
June, 1696, dealing death in the most brutal and cowardly 
manner to the priests, and burning the churches and con- 
vents. On this occasion, however, they could not succeed. 
De Vargas lost no time in administering to them condign 
punishment, although he lost twenty soldiers. That was, 
for a long time afterwards, the last attempt of the Indians. 
A more serious struggle than the ones he used to have with 
the Indians was being initiated against De Vargas by the 



316 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

officers of his own council, who were already beginning to 
murmur against him, blaming him for all the misfortunes 
and sufferings which had befallen the colony. 

Gubero Made Governor — Gharges Against De Vargas — His Trial and 
Vindication. 

Before the report and petition of DeVargas reached the 
King, Don Pedro Rodriguez deCubero had been appointed Gov- 
ernor and Captain General of New Mexico. Cubero came and 
assumed the Governorship of New Mexico on the 2nd of July, 
1696. In the interim the difficulties between DeVargas and 
his council were growing more and more acute, until finally 
charges were formulated against DeVargas and presented 
to governor Cubero. Cubero treated DeVargas with more 
■cruelty than that deserved by a depraved criminal; he 
imposed upon him a fine of $4,000, imprisoned him, and held 
him incomunicado for nearly three years. Father DeVargas 
who was on the occasion, Custodio, and a remote relative of 
DeVargas made a trip to Mexico and obtained under caution 
{bail) the liberty of De Vargas. De Vargas though refused to 
accept his liberty under such terms, and insisted on going 
to Mexico to defend himself from his enemies, a thing 
he obtained, after many sufferings, leaving for Mexico 
in July, 1700. In Mexico he not only refuted the charges of 
his enemies by proving his innocence with the clearest evi- 
dence, but after being exonerated, captured the sympathies 
of the audiencia, which, by unanimous vote, asked his re-ap- 
pointment as Governor and Captain General of New Mexico. 
The members of the council at Santa Fe when they heard 
of the result of the trial retracted what they had said against 
DeVargas, blaming Governor Cubero for it. DeVargas did 
not abandon his efforts to be re-appointed, successor of 
Cubero when Cubero's term closed. We will now leave 
Cubero acting as governor, without giving the reader, for the 
time being any account of his administration which is done 
in another part hereof. Here ends the third book. In the 
book following which is the fourth and last of this work, we 
shall treat of all the events of historical importance from the 
years 1697 to the present 1912. 



BOOK IV- 



CONTAINING ALL THE EVENTS FROM 1700 TO 1912 WITH 
SEVERAL APPENDIXES AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKET- 
CHES OF PROMINENT PERSONS IN THE HISTORY OF 
NEW MEXICO WITH ENGRAVINGS, AND MENTIONING 
OTHER IMPORTANT THINGS. 



CHAPTER L 



Administration of Don Pedro Rodriguez de Cubero — Arrival of De- 
Vargas — His Administration Lasted a Short Time — Dies Four 
Weeks After His Arrival — Francisco Cuervo y Valdez — Founda- 
tion of Albuquerque — Chacon Succeeds Valdez — Governor Chacon 
and His Administration — Governor Mogollon and His Adminis- 
tration — Don Felix Martinez and His Administration — Epoch of 
Governor Antonio Velarde y Cosio — Public Schools are Established 
— Government of Bustamante — Trade With the French — French 
Colony — First Visit of a Bishop — Jesuit Fathers — Accusation 
Against Bustamante — Incumbency of Governors Mendoza, Don 
Manuel Portillo Urrizola — Codallos y Rabal — Capuchin — Martin 
del Valle — Antonio de Mendoza^Don Tomas Vellez Capuchin — 
Don Manuel Portillo Urrizola — Tomas Vellez Capuchin. 



1697-1769. 



As it is indicated in the title of this 4th book, that with it 
the history, which we have been writing concerning the 
events which form our history, will be closed we shall 
proceed with the narrative that starts this book, that is, with 
the more striking events and incidents which occurred 
during the incumbency of Don Pedro Rodriguez de Cubero, 
successor to DeV'argas, and of the other Governors until the 
year 1912. 

Administration of Don Pedro Rodriguez de Cubero. 

Don Pedro Rodriguez de Cubero assumed the charge of 
government of the province of New Mexico in the year 1697,. 



318 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

remaining in office until 1704, when De Vargas returned 
to succeed him. One of the first things he did was to 
take a census of the number of Spanish inhabitants in the 
province, Santa Fe being then, practically, the province, the 
result being a population of 1,500 souls. There was that year, 
and had been the year before, a scarcity of crops causing 
among the people unaccountable sufferings. The continual 
incursions of the hostile Indians made the life of the colonists 
quite sorrowful; yet, there were not wanting speculators, who 
gobled up all the corn they could find among the friendly 
pueblos with the object of exporting it to Chihuahua and 
Durango instead of distributing it among the Spaniards, who 
were already perishing from hunger, on which account, 
Cubero had to resort to drastic measures and take by force 
all the corn the speculators had garnered, issuing, at the 
same time a decree whereby it was absolutely forbidden to 
buy and export grain without the consent of the governor.* 

The Tanos Again Occupy their Pueblo to Which Gubero Gives the Name 
of "Galisteo, ' 1697 — French Expedition, 1698 — Gubero Design- 
ates the Pueblo of Los Queres by the Name of San Jose de la 
Laguna, 1699. 

The hostile pueblos, who had given De Vargas so much 
trouble, continued unceasingly to give trouble to the Span- 
iards; but Cubero's efforts to pacify them were productive of 
better success. Thus it was that before the end of the year 
he had been able to subdue some of those pueblos to his 
authority, succeeded in getting the Tanos to abandon the 
Pueblo of San Ildefonso, and to resettle their own at "Galis- 
teo," Cubero giving it that name. He also got the Queres, 
together with those of Cieneguilla, Santo Domingo and 

* As the information in this and subsequent chapters is based on 
authentic documents which the author found in the archives at Santa Fe. 
jears ag'o, and in the otiice of the Surveyor General of New Mexico, 
from of all which he made copies, the reader is informed that in order 
to avoid the repetition of the same authority at the foot of each histo- 
rical event, whenever no reference is made to any other authority, it 
must be understood that what is here narrated, if it g-ives no reference 
to any other source, from whence the account may flow, has been drawn 
from the letters and documents to which the author alludes. — The 
Author. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 319 

Cochiti to consolidate in a single pueblo twelve miles from 
Acoma, on the river which the Indians themselves called 
"Cubero" in honor of General Cubero. The said Indians did 
not remain long in that pueblo; the Queres alone remained, 
the others retiring to their old pueblos. Between the years 
1698 and 1699 nothing important happened, excepting the 
information that an expedition composed of French from 
Louisiana had invaded the land of the Navajoes in pursuit of 
a party of said Indians who had stolen from them some horses 
and kidnapped some boys and girls, and that, penetrating to 
the center of the encampment, had had a great battle with 
them in which 4,000 (?) Navajoes had perished. That was in the 
year 1698. The next year Cubero made an inspection trip to 
the western part of the province finding the Queres settled in 
a new pueblo in the neighborhood of the one they had two 
years before constructed. They received him with tender- 
ness by giving him proofs of the sincerity of their surrender, 
asking him to designate the new pueblo by the name of a 
saint, a thing Cubero gladly did giving the pueblo the name 
of San Jose de La Lagima, a name which that pueblo bears up 
to this date. From there Cubero followed, visiting the pro- 
vinces of Acoma and Zuni, and receiving at each pueblo of 
said provinces the obedience and submission of the inhabit- 
ants. There only remained the Moqui pueblos on the western 
part of the province which ref ased to submit to his authority, 
but they did it the next year. From the year 1700 to ITO'l 
there were no events of extraordinary importance. At the 
the beginning of 1700 a party of Apaches visited Cubero 
carrying with them two French girls which they said they 
had purchased from the Navajoes; they delivered the 
girls saying that another French expedition of Frenchmen 
had attacked the Jumana nation in the plains, and had 
destroyed their pueblos.* In 1701, through the agency of 
Father Antonio Guerra, the Indians of Santa Clara were 
transferred to the Pueblo of San Ildefonso. and the incum- 
bency of Cubero ended in another incident; towards the 
close of 1703 the Zunis again revolted, and had a difficulty 
with the Father and the escort of soldiers stationed in that 



* Bancroft "New Mexico and Arizona," p. 222. 



320 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

pueblo. It was not, however, a general uprising but rather 
a dispute between seven Indians and some soldiers, the out- 
come of which was the death of the seven Indians, and on the 
side of the Spaniards that of the soldiers Valdez, Palomino 
and Lucero, and Corporal Jiron. In order not to endanger 
the life of Father Garaecoche who administered the Pueblo 
of Zuili at the time, Cubero caused the Father Custodio to 
recall him from said pueblo. As news reached Santa Fe 
towards the close of 1703 of the reappointment of De Vargas 
as Cubero's successor, Cubero tried to flee from the country 
before De Vargas reached Santa Fe, fearing that De Vargas 
would take vengeance on him for what he had done with De 
Vargas six years before. So he did, in fact, so that when De 
Vargas reached Santa Fe in November, 1703, he found the 
government in the hands of an officer of the council whose 
name is not given. 

Arrival of De Vargas — His Administration is of Short Duration —Dies 
a Little After his Arrival — His last Will and Testament. — His 
Death and Burial. 

On November the tenth, 1703, De Vargas arrived in Santa 
F6 coming again as Governor and Captain General of the 
province, and with the new title of "Marquis of the Nava 
of Brazinas," and immediately assumed charge of the gov- 
ernment, causing the council officers who had before made 
charges against him to come before him and give him the 
satisfaction which his rank and high authority required. 
The councilors did not hesitate in making adequate apology 
blaming Cubero for all. In April of the next year, 1704, De 
Vargas set out on an inspection trip towards the South, but 
was taken ill near the Sierra of Sandia and was carried to 
Bernalillo where he expired on the 14th of that month. Here 
the author wishes to make a remark to the reader, and that 
is: That almost all historians with the exception of Bancroft, 
Pino, and Salpointe declare that between 1703 and 1704 the 
Duke of Alburquerque was governor of New Mexico, The 
assertion is a gross error, the duke of Alburquerque was 
never governor of New Mexico, but, certainly. Viceroy of 
Mexico. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 321 

Last Will and Testament of De Vargas. 

(Taken from the Archives of New Mexico, No. 187) De 
Vargas was born in Madrid. At the time of his death De 
Vargas had no family except two sons called Don Juan and 
Don Alonzo both minors, and a negro slave, called Andres, 
who was in the service of De Vargas from 1691 to the day of 
his death. In his testament these two sons and the slave 
are the only ones he mentions as his heirs. He commands 
in his testament that after his death the slave Andres shall 
take his said sons to Mexico and that he must remain with 
them; he gives the slave his liberty if he complies with the 
recommendation and leaves him a horse mounting outfit, 
two mules, an arquebus and several articles of raiment. He 
commands that mass be said for the repose of his soul at 
Bernalillo; that his remains be transferred to Santa Fe and 
buried under the principal altar in the church of Santa Fe. 
He designates, appoints, and declares Captain Juan Paiz 
Hurtado to assume the command and charge of the govern- 
ment of the province, as his successor, and orders that 
immediately after his death, he, the said Hurtado, give 
advice to the Viceroy, the Duke of Alburquerque of his 
death for governmental purposes. De Vargas was suc- 
ceeded by Don Francisco Cuervo y Valdez in 1705, Juan Paiz 
Hurtado governing in the interregnum until the coming of 
Valdez, in 1705. Juan Paiz Hurtado had been Lieutenant 



General under De Vargas. 



Vaide 



rrancisco Ouervo y vaidez. 

On the 10th of March, 1705, Governor Francisco Cuervoy 
Valdez arrived in Santa Fe, and immediately assumed the 
reins of government acting as governor until July 31st, 
1707. During his first year as governor nothing important 
happened except the submission of the province of Moquina 
which for so many years had resisted the Spaniards, and the 
renewal of friendly relations with the Zufiis, results both due 
to the effort of Father Garaecoeche who again established 
himself that year at Zuni. That year also by reason of the 
prolonged drought, the crops were lost, the families and the 
army being exposed to great famine on account of the lack 



322 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OP NEW MEXICO. 

of eatables to subsist upon, a circumstance which compelled 
the governor to ask help from the authorities at El Paso, but 
did not obbaiu anything. The Apaches, on account of 
unknown causes, pounced upon the governor that year, 
attacking him and his troops on one of his general inspection 
trips. 

Founding of Alburquerque — Chacon Succeeds Valdez. 

In the year 1706, Governor Cuervo took thirty families to 
the place we know today by the name of Albuquerque,* and 
founded the Villa of Alburquerque giving it that name in 
honor of the Duke of Alburquerque who was at the time 
Viceroy of Mexico. Said Duke never visited New Mexico, 
as other historians assure us. Cuervo reported to the Vice- 
roy the same year the founding of said villa, but the Vice- 
roy did not welcome the report of Cuervo; he censured him 
and ordered him, to change the name of said Villa to that of 
San Felipe de Alburquerque, in honor of the soverign then 
ruling over the Spains. In August, 1707, the incumbency of 
Governor Cuervo ended, being succeeded on the first day of 
that month and year by Admiral Don Jose Chacon Medina 
Salazar y Villasenor, Marquez of La Penuela, who governed 
until 1712. 

Governor Chacon and his Covernment — Resettlement of Isleta. 

Don Jose Chacon Medina Salazar y Villasenor, Marquez of 
La Penuela, is not known in history, in general, but by the 
name of Chacon so that under that name we shall refer to 
him; and in order not to confound him with the other Gov- 
ernor Chacon, who governed New Mexico from 1789 to 1805, 
(post) we shall call the second Chacon by his full name, to- 
wit: Don Fernando Chacon. On the arrival of Governor Cha- 
con to New Mexico, the Moquis and Zuiiis were again dis- 
gusted and at the point of declaring war on the Spaniards. 
The governor sent immediately as emissaries of peace some 
of the principal Indians of the friendly pueblos to said pro- 
vinces of Moqui and Zuiii, but his emissaries were dispatched 

*The word "Alburquerque" is the correct word, and not Albu- 
querque as it is seen in geographies and books of History. — The 
Author. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO 323 

back by the said Moquis and Zunis without being permitted 
to explain the object of their visit. The hostihty, however, 
of the said Moquis and Zunis resulted in nothing more than 
a complete indifference and rupture of friendly relations 
with the Spaniards. The nation of the Navajoe Indians, 
which, from the first year of the conquest, had caused the 
Spaniards so many grave damages, declared open war on 
the Spaniards during the incumbency of Chacon. Chacon 
towards the end of 1708, was engaged in repairing the Chapel 
of San Miguel, of which we have already spoken, when he 
received trustw^orthy information to the effect that a great 
party of Navajoes had stolen a great number of sheep stock, 
and killed many of the Indians of the friendly pueblos of 
Jemes and Cias. As soon as the repairing of said chapel was 
finished (in one of the joists which support the choir of said 
chapel the inscription is seen which said Marquez of Peftuela 
caused to be engraved in said joist evidencing said rebuild- 
ing) Chacon undertook, in 1709, a campaign against the Nava- 
joes, himself going at the head of the troop, and a great 
number of citizens who voluntarily followed him. They met 
the Navajoes, after a few journeys from the Capital, en- 
gaging them in a most obstinate battle from which the Span- 
iards came out victorious, reducing the Navajoes to com. 
plete obedience, and compelling them to sign a treaty of 
peace and to restore the animals they had stolen. The same 
year Fr. Juan de la Pena was at the head of the Franciscans 
in New Mexico. By his religious zeal he had gained the 
tender regard of the Indians of the province, and was more 
successful in the repeopling of deserted pueblos by fugitive 
Indians than the military authorities had been. He assem- 
bled with their families all the wandering Indians, congre- 
gated them at the Pueblo of Isleta, forming, thus, out of that 
deserted pueblo a new community which has become one of 
the few Indian communities which live today in the identical 
place, where the priests located them. Governor Chacon 
did not look with the complacency on the good results which 
Fr. de la Peiia was achieving with his missions, on which 
account, a difficulty arose between him and Father Pena, a 
difficulty w^hich ended in an accusation Father Peiia brought 
against Chacon before the Viceroy, charging him with despot- 



324 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

ism and cruelty a,gainst the Indians, charges which, upon 
due investigation, were contirmed by Father Pena, and by 
reason of which. Governor Chacon was censured and obhged 
to pay a tine of $2,000. Father Juan de la Pena died in the 
same year, his successor being Fr. Lopez de Haro, ad interim, 
Fr. Juan de Tagle becoming subsequently the dejure succes- 
sor. Thus ended the administration of Governor Jose Cha- 
con Medina Salazar y Villasenor, Marquez of La Penuela, in 
the year 1712, a year in which Don Juan Ignacio Flores Mo- 
gollon came in as governor and governed to the year 1715. 

Governor Mogollon and His Administration — Battle With the Yutas. 

Don Juan Ignacio Flores Mogollon commenced to govern 
on the 5th day of October, 1712; during his incumbency 
almost all the nomadic tribes declared themselves at war 
against the Spaniards and against the Pueblo Indians. The 
Yuta nation showed itself the most warlike and dangerous, 
and against it were the forces, which Mogollon could assem- 
ble, concentrated, and, going out himself at the head of the 
campaign, engaged that nation in a decisive battle, com- 
pletely subduing them. That happened in the year 1713. 

Founding of San Lorenzo— Death of Father Delgado. 

The next year Mogollon established a settlement of Spanish 
colonists at a place near Las Cruces, today the County of 
Dona Ana, to which he gave the name of "San Lorenzo." 
That same year the Indians of Acoma assassinated Father 
Carlos Delgado; the Navajoes again revolted, but were put 
down by Captain Serna who, with four hundred soldiers 
caused great slaughter of Indians. The next year, after a 
long conference between the colonists and the religious, 
Mogollon gave orders for the disarming of all the Indians of 
the pueblos, which order the religious opposed very empha- 
tically contending that the Indians should be left with the 
neccessary arms for defending themselves from the con- 
tinual invasions of the Yutas, Navajoes and Comanches. 
The superior authorities sustained the opinion of the Fathers 
for which reason Mogollon resigned, being succeeded on the 
30th of October, 1715, by Governor Don Felix Martinez. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 325 

Don Felix Martinez — His Administration. 

Besides being disgusted at the decision given by the Vice- 
roy against him, Governor Mogollon had another and more 
powerful reason for resigning the office of governor. It was 
that his age no longer left him strength enough to attend 
properly to the weighty tasks of the Government. Don Felix 
Martinez, from what one can infer from his actions as an 
official, must have been a man of arrogant, wayward, and 
wrangling character, for hardly had he began to govern, when 
without any legitimate cause that can be thought of or known, 
he arrested, and threw into prison. Governor Mogollon. It 
is probable that on account of Martinez not being of the 
same class of decent as Mogollon, for Mogollon, was a native 
of Seville and of noble lineage, while Martinez had been 
a simple soldier of De Vargas, who to reward the good services 
he had rendered as a soldier, obtained for him from the King, 
his appointment as perpetual mayor of the Villa of Santa Fe; 
it is, probable, then, that through mere vanity he considered 
himself superior to Mogollon. Be that as it may, the conduct 
of Martinez reached the ears of the Viceroy, the Marques 
of Valero, who ordered him to present himself in Mexico 
without delay sending as an ad interim Governor, Captain 
Antonio Velarde y Cosio who, at the time, was at El Paso. 
Before the arrival of Cosio at Santa Fe, Martinez w^as aware 
of nothing of what was going on, so that leaving Mogollon in 
jail at Santa Fe he started on a campaign against the Moqui 
Indians, who had the aid of the Tanos, with whom he had two 
great battles, coming out victorious from both, but without 
subduing the Indians. While Martinez was waging war 
against the Moquis, the Yutas attacked the Indians of Taos, 
the Teguas,and the Spaniards. Captain Serna rushed out 
to the aid of the Taos, and of the other Indians and Spaniards. 
Overtaking the Yutas at the Cerro of San Antonio, near 
Conejos, he engaged them causing them terrible slaughter 
and imprisoning many of them. Then it was that the order 
of the Viceroy arrived and Martinez left for Mexico, but 
before leaving he refused to deliver the government of the 
province to Governor Cosio, appointing Juan Paiz Hurtado 



326 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

as Governor ad interim, and starting on the 20th of January 
to Mexico, taking Mogollon along with him. and attempting 
at the same time to take Cosio with him also, but Cosio 
refused to obey him sending a report to Mexico, concerning 
the insubordination of Martinez. Hurtado continued acting 
as governor until the month of December when a peremptory 
order reached him to deliver the government to Velarde y 
Cosio which he did in December of the same year, the date in 
which Velarde assumed the government acting as governor 
till the beginning of the year 1721. 

Epoch of Governor Antonio Velarde y Cosio — Order for Establishment 
of Garrison at Guartelejo. 

As soon as he assumed charge of the government, Velarde 
undertook an active campaign against the Yutas and 
Comanches, carrying with him one hundred and live soldiers 
and many friendly Indians, and traversing what is today the 
State of Colorado and part of the State of Kansas, but he 
could not overtake them, meeting only some of them who had 
been wounded in an encounter they had with the French. 
Prom there Velarde returned to New Mexico tinding on his 
arrival an order directing him to establish a garrison in the 
place called "Cuartelejo" on the Napeste (Arkansas) river, 
an order which it was impossible for him to comply with 
owing to his lack of means and troops. 

First Public Schools are Established. 

In August of that year (1721) the Father Custdio summoned 
a meeting of all the priests at Santa F6 in order to treat about 
putting into practice the command of the King, which had 
just arrived from Mexico ordering them to establish public 
schools in all the pueblos as well as in the Spanish settle- 
ments. The result of the meeting was the establishment of 
schools in many pueblos, and in all the Spanish settlements, 
it being determined also that in each pueblo and colony the 
Indians and colonists should cultivate a milpa (corn field) for 
the benefit of the teacher. *No other important thing 

*The authority for the establishment of these schools in New 
Mexico, the autlior has not found either in the archives nor in any 
history e.xcept in the work "The Soldiers of the Cross," of Archbishop 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 327 

occurred during the incumbency of Velarde, his administra- 
tion ending at the beginning of the year 1721, the year in 
which Don Juan Estrado y Austria arrived as Judge of the 
Audiencia to investigate tlie differences between Martinez and 
Mogollon and with authority to act as governor, while 
Velarde's successor Don Juan Domingo de .Bustamante, 
who reached Santa Pe March 2nd, 1722 and governed to the 
year 1781, arrived. 

Administration of Bustamante — Trade With the French — French Col- 
ony — First Visit of a Bishop — Jesuit Fathers — Accusation Against 
Bustamante. 

When Bustamante assumed the duties of his administra- 
tion (1722 supra) an illicit traffic had already been established 
between the Spaniards and the French, a traffic which had 
to be forbidden by the Spanish authorities, because under 
the pretext of the traffic, which was being carried on by 
smuggling, and which amounted to $12,000 a year, the French 
were intruding into Spanish territory, their arrogance over- 
reaching itself so far as to establish in 1721 a temporary col- 
ony at Cuartelejo, on the Napeste (Arkansas) river, which 
they abandoned shortly after they had established it. 

Bishop Grespo Visits New Mexico. 

Bishop Benedicto Crespo visited New Mexico for the first 
time in the year 1722, having come to administer confirma- 
tion and to inform himself of the precise condition of things 
in New Mexico, and the better to fix his claim as Bishop of 
Durango, for, as such, he claimed authority over New 
Mexico. 

The Jesuits Return to New Mexico — Gruzat Succeeds Bustamante — 
Michalena Succeeds Gruzat — Bishop Elizacoechea s Visit. 

During the years 1730 and 1731, the Moqui province was 
again visited by Jesuit missionaries, this being the second 
time those fathers appeared in New Mexico, for they had 
already made, as we have said, a prior visit to the provinces 

Salpointe, pag-e 96, he basing- his authority in the ecclesiastical 
archives which are worthy to be considered as the highest authority 
in the matter.— The Author. 



328 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

of Moqui and ZuCi. The said missionarj^ priests were 
named Francisco Archundi and Jos6 Narvdez. They were 
well received, as had been their companions before, and they 
were able to administer the Moqui Indians with marked 
success, but as the Franciscans opposed the preaching of 
the Jesuits ip territory that belonged to them, the Jesuits 
had again to abandon the territory. In that same j^ear Gov- 
ernor Bustamante was accused of being himself the man 
who was promoting the illicit trade with the French, a cen- 
sure against him resulting from the accusation. His admin- 
istration ended on that year, and to succeed him Don 
Gervasio Cruzat Gongora was appointed. Gongora assumed 
the same year the charge of the government, and governed 
until the year 1736. During the administration of Cruzat 
nothing of any importance happened, save an order he issued 
instructing the alcaldes (justices of the peace) to interpose 
their legal authority for the suppression of the vices of 
immorality, gambling and vagrancy. Let us pass now to 
the consideration of his successor, Don Enrique de Olavide 
y Michalena, who governed from the beginning of 1736 to 
1739. During the government of Michalena history records 
no events worthy of mention, except the pastoral visit, that 
New Mexico received for a second time, on this occasion 
being the Most Illustrious Bishop Elizacoechea, of Durango. 

Incumbency of Governors Mendoza, Don Manuel Portillo Urrizola-- 
Codallos y Rabal — Capuchin, Martin del Valle, Antonio de Men- 
doza y Capuchin. 

Between the years 1739 and 1777, during which, time the 
governors named in the headlines of this paragraph governed 
respectively, there were no historical incidents which, in an}'^ 
manner, altered the monotony that, on account of the frequent 
depredations of the barbarous Indians, and the uprising of 
the rebel pueblos, had come to impose itself upon the spirit 
of the colonists, who no longer interested themselves in the 
material and industrial development of the province, because 
of their being continually exposed to lose their lives and prop- 
erty. The reaction occasioned by the said sad situation went 
so far as to completely paralyze the development of all the 
industries, withthe exception of agriculture and stock raising, 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 329 

these being the only industries to which the colonists could 
dedicate themselves, for the reason given. We will, however, 
give a short account of what happened in the epochs of said 
governors. 

First Strangers to Visit New Mexico, 1713. 

Don Gapar Domingo de Mendoza governed till the year 
1713, and it was during his administration that the first 
strangers settled in New Mexico, at Taos. They were two 
Frenchmen called Jean d'Alay and Luis Marie, the first, a 
barber by profession, the second, a desperate criminal. Alay 
married a Spanish woman at Santa Pe, and their descendants 
are today known by the surname of Alarid. Marie, in obe- 
dience to his natural impulse, followed his criminal career 
and finally the gallows was his landing place.* According to 
Father Mota, New Mexico had in 1742 a population, without 
counting the soldiers, of 9,747 souls, and there were already 
24 villages and villas inhabited by the Spaniards. 

Godallos y Rabal — Third Visit of Jesuit Fathers to New Mexico — The 
Jesuits Again. ^ 

Governor Joaquin Godallos y Rabal governed from the year 
1743 to the year 1749. In 1745, the Jesuit missionaries made 
again a visit to the province of Moqui, the missionaries being, 
on this occasion. Fathers Delgado, Irrigoyen and Juan Jose 
Toledo, who, with the previous leave of the proper authority in 
Mexico, and accompanied by80f riendlylndians from Durango 
visited all the provinces of Moqui, but did not establish mis- 
sions because they had no authority for doing that. They 
remained in the province converting a great number of 
Indians, and returned to Mexico in November of that year in 
obedience to an order from the Viceroy ordering them to 
suspend their apostolic labors. In the same year, 1745, the 
question broke out anew about the boundaries between New 
Mexico and the New Vizcay, on account of the jurisdiction 
which Governor Godallos claimed to have over the town of El 
Paso. The boundary question between New Mexico and New 
Vizcay had already been agitated before, in the year 1683; 

* Bancroft. "New Me.xico," p. 243 and notes. 



330 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

that year Viceroy Manrique de la Cerda having declared by 
decree that El Paso belonged to the jurisdiction of the pro- 
vince of New Vizcay, the governor of New Mexico being then 
Don Domingo Jiron Cruzat Gironza, and of New Vizcay, Don 
Bartolome de Estrada. It is reasonable to believe that Gov- 
ernor Codallos was not aware of the royal decree of 1683, 
when he attempted to exercise jurisdiction over El Paso, but, 
as soon as he was informed about it, he issued a decree at 
Santa Fe on February 21, 1745, declaring the boundaries in 
conformity with said decree of 1683, the question of bound- 
aries between the two provinces remaining then definitely 
settled. 

Don Tomas Vellez Capuchin — The Gomanches Attack Galisteo — 
Routed in Fierce Battle. 

Capuchin commenced to govern at the beginning of the year 
1749, and governed until the year 1754, without having been 
able during his incumbency to do anything else but a long 
and energetic campaign which he made against the Goman- 
ches who had attacked the puebJo and settlements of Galisteo 
and made a great slaughter among the Tano Indians and the 
Spanish colonists of that neighborhood, and carried away as 
captives 40 persons, women and children. Capuchin at the 
head of 164 soldiers and about 200 friendly Indians went out 
in pursuit of the Gomanches. He overtook them at El Llano 
Estado (Staked Plain) where they gave him battle in which 
the Indians were routed with a loss of 101 dead, 145 prisoners 
and the captives they were carrying were liberated. That 
same year Father Menchero was enabled to obtain the final 
submission of the Moqui province, its inhabitants, to the 
number of 10,000 demanding to be indoctrinated by a priest 
to be permanently settled in their province. 

Don Francisco Antonio Martin del Valle — New Mexico is Visited by 
Bishop Tamaron. 

Martin del Valle governed from 1754 to 1760, his adminis- 
tration commencing with measures that contravened the 
established order between the ecclesiastical and civil juris- 
dictions thus placing himself in enmity with the Fathers, a 
condition which could but redound to the detriment of the 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 331 

good government of the province, for without the ecclesiasti- 
cal support the Indians did not respect civil authority. The 
first place where the friction was felt was at the province of 
Moqui, the Father Custudio had to make a trip to that pro- 
vince in order to induce the Indians to submit to the civil 
authority assuring them that the dispute between the tvv^o 
jurisdictions was to be settled in Mexico, and that, whatever 
the result might be, it behooved them to submit to both 
authorities as they had done until that date. The exhorta- 
tion of the Father Custodio to the contrary notwithstanding, 
the Cacique refused to permit Father Rodriguez de la Torre 
to continue preaching and living in the pueblo. The priests 
then abandoned the province for fear of being assassinated. 

Bishop Tamaron. 

In July, 1760, New Mexico was again visited by a bishop,, 
this time by the most Illustrious Lord Bishop Tamaron, of 
Durango. During his trip, Bishop Tamaron administered 
the Sacrament of Confirmation to 2,y73 persons at El Paso, 
and to 11,271 in New Mexico. At the end of the year. Capu- 
chin went to Mexico, and Don Mateo Antonio de Mendoza re- 
mained acting as governor ad interim but governed for a very 
short period only. 

Don Manuel Portillo Urrizola — Capuchin Succeeds Urrizola — The 
Apaches Make an Assault on the Town of Taos, 1761 — Urrizola 
Routs Them. 

Urrizola governed for a little over a year. He took charge 
of the government at the beginning of the year 1761 having 
been succeeded at the end of that same year by Don Tom as 
Vellez Capuchin who came as governor for a second time. 
During Urrizola's epoch the Apaches attacked the town of 
Taos killing a great number of inhabitants and carrying 
away as captives 50 women. This was the only occasion 
Urrizola had of covering himself with glory by means of one 
the most brilliant exploits in the long series of wars which 
the government had continually been sustaining since the 
time it began to exist. Immediately upon the news reaching 
Santa Fe, in December, 1761, Urrizola left for Taos with 80 
soldiers. He overtook the Apaches near the River San An- 



332 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

tonio (at Conejos,)and taking them by surprise, he completely 
annihilated them, killing 400 Apaches and recovering the 
50 women they had carried away, and also a great number of 
horses. 

Tomas Vellez Capuchin — El Rio de la Plata — Captain Juan Maria 
Rivera Discovers Mines in Colorado. 

Tomas Vellez Capuchin again took charge of the govern- 
ment in February, 1762, and governed until the year 1767, the 
year in which he was succeeded b}^ Don Pedro Fermin de 
Mendinueta. During his long incumbency Capuchin did not 
experience any trouble from the rebel Indians, conse- 
quently he employed his time in developing the industries 
wiiich, as has been observed, were found at an absolute 
standstill. He sent out an exploring party to explore the 
sierras to the northwest of the province which is today 
the southwest part of the State of Colorado, with the object 
of discovering minerals. The expedition was under the 
command of Captain Don Juan Maria Rivera who marched 
as far as the place where the rivers Gunnison and Uncom- 
paghrejoin a larger river which Rivera called "Rio de la 
Plata,"' and to the sierra near it, w'hich he likewise named 
"Sierra de la Plata," because he found there many and very 
rich silver mines. That was all Capuchin did during his second 
administration. With this comes to its end the first chapter 
of the Fourth Book. 



CHAPTER IL 



Administration ot Mendinueta — Historical Inundation — Harmony Be- 
tween the Civil and Religious Authorities — Treaty With the Coman- 
ches — Historical Accountof Mendinueta — Other Events — Harmony 
Between the Church and the Government — A Priest Discovers the 
Salt Lake — The Form of Government is Changed — Trevol and 
Anza — Don Manuel Flon is Appointed But Does Not Assume the 
Government — Don Fernando de la Concha Comes — Repeopling 
of Abiquiu, Ojo Caliente, Ghama, Santa Cruz and Embudo. 



1767-1794. 



As the author by an oversight, omitted the mention, in the 
preceeding chapter, of the fact that the points of Abiquiii, 
Ojo Caliente, Embudo, Chama, and Santa Cruz had been, 
before the first administration of Capuchin, abandoned by 
the Spanish colonists, by reason of the frequent incursions 
of the barbarous Indians, and also on account of the 
frequency with which they lost their crops, at times due to 
the drought, and most of the time because of those very 
invasions, mention is now made because it is an important 
event. A petition was made in April, 1750, to Governor 
Capuchin by several of the colonists who previously lived in 
said points, for the repeopling of the same. The petition 
was signed by Jose de Garraez, in his own name, and as 
representative of his co-colonists. At that date Capuchin 
was at El Paso, the place where he received said petition. 
He considered it, and granted what the petitioners asked, 
with the condition following. Capuchin speaks:— "Let it be 
complied with, remembering what the most excellent Lord 
Viceroy commands by order, confirming it with the verdict 
of the Lord Auditor General of War, for its more punctual 
compliance and due obedience, so far as it may be possible: 
So I ordered and signed, I, Don Tomds Vell^z Capuchin, 
Governor of New Mexico.'" 



334 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

The permanent repeopling, then, of all those points dates 
from the year 1750, without having been again abandoned. 
The narrative nov^^ foUov^s of the events that occurred during 
the administration of Don Fermin de Mendinueta. 

Government of Mendinueta — Historical Inundation — Harmony between 
the Civil and Religious Authorities — Treaty with the Comanches — ■ 
Historical Account of Mendinueta — Other Events. 

In the year 1767, Santa F6 suffered a real calamity. There 
was a rising or swelling of the creek so great that neither 
the elder Indians of those times, nor the descendants 
of the Spaniards to our own day, according to tradi- 
tion, ever saw its equal. The desolation was almost com- 
plete. Many persons perished, the buildings were destroyed 
and the river changed its course to the place known today 
in the city as "Water Street,"' and in Spanish from that day 
to the present date, by the name of "Rio Chiquito." Basing 
their calculations on the incomplete accounts which are 
found about the occurrence, as well as in the tradition that 
has come down from generation to generation, the historians 
reckon that the loss in live stock, buildings and other pro- 
perty was not below $200,000, and that the lives lost reached 
up to 50. After the inundation the colonists built up again 
the city; but not before the citizens and the soldiers had 
labored for a considerable time to turn the river back to its 
old bed where it has remained down to our times. 

Harmony Between the Government and the Church. 

The difficulties between the priests and the government, 
the reader must have observed, had become, from the early 
days of the conquest, a chronic disease which, with the 
invasions of the barbarous Indians, and the uprisings of the 
Pueblo Indians, kept the inhabitants of the province in per- 
petual agitation. Mendinueta, who, it m?y be said, was, with 
the exception of De Vargas, the best governor, appreciated 
the importance and value of friendship with the ecclesias- 
tical jurisdiction. He established without delay friendly 
relations with the Father Custodio, from which resulted the 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 335 

most complete concords between both powers, and the 
renewal of efforts between the ecclesiastical and civil author- 
ities, causing the province thus to again enter into an epoch 
of real development of its industries and wealth, notwith- 
standing that its condition was lamentable, viewed from a 
civic, economical, industrial and military standpoint, as Men- 
dinueta quite plainly expresses it in his account to the King, 
which we shall presently give. 

Treaty With the Gomanches. 

The year 1771 signalizes itself in the history of Mendi- 
nueta's administration for the consummation of the con- 
cord of which we spoke in the foregoing chapter, and also 
of a treaty with the warlike Comanche nation, which had 
become the scourge of New Mexico, Chihuahua and Sonora. 
The treaty of peace thus made by Mendinueta with the said 
Indians was respected and scrupulously observed by both 
the said Indians and the Spaniards, the province getting as 
a sequel great benefits, for the submission of the Comanches 
was followed by that of the other tribes of barbarian Indians. 
As soon as Mendinueta became satisfied that the effects of 
the treaty were going to be permanent, he issued a procla- 
mation similar to the one issued every year by the President 
of the United States, and the Governors of the different 
States under the name of "Thanksgiving,'' and had it her- 
alded in all the settlements and Indian pueblos, urging its 
faithful fulfillment, and also by sending a copy of the treaty to 
the Viceroy, who received the news with the highest pleasure 
giving the governor the most heartfelt congratulations, and 
ordering hirp to make a very minute, historical report of the 
Province of New Mexico, and requesting him to make such 
recommendations as in his opinion he considered necessary, 
a thing Mendinueta did the next year, giving such a detailed 
history that it may be deemed as important as the historical 
narrative made by Father Benavides, the year 1630, at 
Madrid, to the King of Spain (see appendix first of this 
work). Mendinuetas' historical report we give below, both 
because it is, as we have said, of great importance, and that 
it may be perpetuated in history. 



336 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Historical Account of Mendinueta — Important Statement Which Gov- 
ernor Mendinueta Makes to the Viceroy in the Year 1772, Con- 
cerning the Lamentable Condition of the Inhabitants of New Mexico 
and Their Lack of Civism. Taken from Hist. Doc. Mex. Vol. First, 
Third Series, Pages 720-728. 

"Most Excellent Sir: On the 17th of February of the cur- 
rent year I received two letters from Your Excellency, the 
one dated September 28th, and the other October 19th of last 
year. By the first, Your Excellency is pleased to approve my 
efforts in regard to the Comanche nation, compelled by 
necessity; for which I offer Your Excellency repeated thanks, 
and, although in it you order me to report the state of this 
province, and what I. may deem proper for its quietude, and 
attending to the fact that in your second letter you reiterate 
the same order to the effect that I make an exact statement 
of the actual state of this province, of the armed people it has 
for its defense, and the matters which they must attend to; 
the manner in which these inhabitants can obtain relief, and 
the correction and punishment that should be meted out to 
rebels who occasion so many damages, 1, herewith, give to the 
two letters the most exact and due compliance. 

"The internal area of this government from the town the 
Spaniards commonly called "Tome'" on the south, to the 
Pueblo of San Ger6nimo of the Taos Indians on the north, 
comprises 56 leagues, and from the Pueblo of Our Lady of 
Los Angels of Pecos on the east, to Our Lady of Guadalupe of 
the Zunis on the west, 70 leagues: In this considerable dis- 
trict, the inhabitants of this kingdom live, both Spaniards, 
and reasonable peoples, such as the Christian Indians, but 
with this difference, that the Indian pueblos are all formed 
in union, and for that reason are more defensible, but the 
towns of the Spaniards are not united so that to the dispersion 
of their houses the name of ranches or camp houses tit with 
more propriety, and not that of villas or places, and for this 
reason they are incapable of any defense, a thing which has 
been the motive for the depopulation of some weak frontier 
settlements without mj?- having been able to protect them 
permanently with the squad of soldiers destined for their 
defense; and in others not having provided them with fire 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 337 

arms and ammunitions, and the other expedients which I 
have essayed; and everything is made useless by the fear 
which has taken hold of their dwellers on seeing their 
situations without any defense and the numerous troops of 
enemies that combat them. 

"No Spanish or Indian settlement can ever be called a 
center, but rather frontiers because they are at longdistances, 
the ones from the others, and these distances consist of 
high sierras and thick woods facilitating the entry of enemies 
to nearly all of them unless an incessant care is taken to 
roundup the land; and this rarely accomplishes the object 
desired which is, to see in time if the enemy is approaching. 

"The Comanche nation invades, and is hostile, to these 
settlements from every quarter, and the Apache, from the 
west to the south; and although between the north and the 
west the Utes and Navajoes dwell, these two nations are 
not always at peace, and even if they are, that fact notwith- 
standing, the Comanches do not fail to harrass them from 
the side they inhabit; whence Your Excellency will under- 
stand that the interior of this government is surrounded by 
enemies, in such a way that in its whole extent there is not a 
secure spot to keep horses or any stock and in all parts 
thefts are occurring. 

"Prom what is here expressed Your Excellency will become 
acquainted with the fact that, with 80 soldiers, which is all 
this garrison has, it is not possible to guard so many and 
so far apart settlements; nor, even, to give them succor in time, 
because the news of the incursion or theft reaches here after 
the occurrence has happened, with delay, not of hours, but of 
days most of the time; and, as these enemies, when thej' 
have done their deeds, whether favorable or adverse, march 
away with precipitate flight, they render useless any succor. 
As, in order to pursue them, it is indispensable that the 
soldiers be joined by some neighbors, and as these, having 
a few scattered riding outfits, waste most precious time in 
hunting them up, in this manner the opportunity of over- 
taking them slips off. 

"The men who have offensive and defensive weapons both 
Spaniards and people of reason, with the exception of the 
guardsmen with accoutrements for horse-riding, scarcely 



338 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

reach two hundred and fifty, but it is impossible for these 
to go out on a campaign without leaving the towns defenseless 
and exposed to total ruin. Nor is it possible for them to 
protect a helpless town, because the celerity, with which 
the enemies, who are provided with numerous horses, make 
their precipatate retreats, does not allow it; and it must be 
taken into account that, in order to go out on a campaign or 
pursue these enemies, it is necessary that each man carry 
at least from three to four horses, because, as these barbar- 
ians have no fixed homestead, they wander every way, 
having such an opportunity in the wide spread lands; and, in 
order to encounter it becomes necessary to wander by 
different directions in which much time and many victuals 
are consumed which it is indispensable to carry along. 
About an equal number of Christian Indians can come 
together and co-operate in these campaigns whose arms are 
arrows, and some, though few have fire arms, and although 
the Pueblos of Zuni, Acoma and Laguna are numerous, they 
cannot be drawn out of their pueblos both on account of the 
great distances as because they do little in defending them- 
selves from the Apaches. 

"The attentions which Spanish and Indian neighbors have, 
besides the care of their scanty property in the fields and 
plantations, are many without going to the help of an invaded 
town, or to guard it when there are indications of the 
approach of the enemies; pursue those who steal when there 
is prospect of overtaking them, with due regard to the num- 
ber of thieves and to the number of those who can be 
gathered in order to pursue them speedily; to provide them- 
selves with riding outfits, to go out on a campaign when the 
governor deems it convenient, without any compensation; 
all this becomes necessary in order to engross the body of a 
well ordered troop which responds to the call for these 
operations. 

"It seems to me, sir, that Your Excellency will under- 
stand from what I have related, the situation and state of 
this province, the weak forces for its defense, and the many 
calls to which they respond; for, although it abounds in men 
fit for war, the lack of arms, and a good deal more, that of 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 339 

horses, renders them useless, considering that the war in 
this country cannot be made on foot. 

"One ot the opportune means that may be taken is to com- 
pel the neighbors of each settlement who, as I have said, live 
in a scattered manner, to get together and form towns with 
plazas and streets in such a way that a few men could defend 
them, from which it will follow that they would the more 
quickly join in their own defense, or be ready to give help to 
some other place. Towns arranged according to this plan 
would be respected by the enemy. 

"The attainment of this end is impracticable to a governor 
because the rustic temper of these neighbors who are accus- 
tomed to live separated, the ones from the others, for not 
even parents and sons unite, and if I attempted to oblige 
them to congregate it would amount to making them my 
enemies, and the road to this court would be tilled with com- 
plainants who, with apparent lamentations (as is their custom) 
they would try, by all means, to frustrate the object of the 
governor, esteeming more a life exposed to ruin, than to live 
under defense by being united. 

"It is not a rash judgment in me to be persuaded of what I 
have above said, but an experience acquired in cases of what 
happened to my predecessors; for, unless force intervenes 
with them, persuasion is of no avail, and only a superior and 
strict com mand from You r Excellency will be capable to facil- 
itate the union of these neighbors. 

"I consider the formation of settlements, such as I have 
said, most useful for the defensive, and the oifensive in that 
it intimidates the enemies and obliges them to have less 
arrogance, and more constraint. For the attainment of this, 
it would be proper to establish a garrison in the Valley of 
Taos, the situation of which, on account of being so deserted, 
and distant from this Capital, 25 leagues of bad land to the 
north, and having a pueblo of war accustomed Indians, and 
some neighbors (and many others who would return to their 
houses and labors at present abandoned through fear of the 
Comanches) would insure that frontier, and at the same time 
would protect the Pueblos of Abiquiu, Santa Clara, San Ilde- 
fonso and Picuris and all the settlements of Spaniards belong- 



340 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

ing to the jurisdiction of Santa Cruz de la Canada. And it 
would be quite difficult for the Comanches, who would insult 
or steal in the said pueblos and settlements, to return to 
their land, without having their retreat cut off by the auxi- 
liaries of that garrison: and these frontiers, being secure by 
that garrison, they would be free from that care, in order to 
also use it in the protection of the other frontiers and in 
making war on the Apaches, and there would always be suffi- 
cient people to go out on campaigns against any other hostile 
nation. 

"The prudent and superior intelligence of Your Excellency 
will supply the defects that may have escaped me, in the 
compliance of your command in your two quoted and es- 
teemed letters, assuring you that all herewith explained is 
as much as the mediocrity of what my talent attains and 
that my good will ever desires to act with exactness in 
serving and pleasing Your Excellency whose life may God 
Our Lord prosper with long years. 

Santa Fe of Nuevo Mejico and March 26 of 1772. 
"Xmo. Sr. K. T. H. of Yours Excellency 
Your most reverent and obliged servant, 

Pedro Fermin de Mendinueta, 
Exmo. Sr. D. Antonio de Bucarelig Urisua." 

Fathers Escalanle and Dominguez Discover the Salt Lake, Utah» 
1776*— The Gliff Dwellings. 

In the year 1776 under the government of Mendinueta the 
Franciscan Fathers attempted to discover a road or passage 
to California by the regions of the north (as General Fre- 
mont did in the last century.) They asked for a military 
escort to carry their enterprise into execution, but because 
Mendinueta was short of troops, he could give them only 
nine soldiers who under the command of Father Escalante, 
and accompanied by Father Francisco Atanacio Dominguez 

*The authority upon which I rely to relate this daringf effort of 
Fathers Escalante and Dominguez is found in their report made after 
their return to Santa Fe, which said report I had the opportunity 
of examining in the archives of New Mexico in Santa Fe. It is a Ms. 
found among- others under the designation ''Documentos Hist6ricos."' 
—The Author. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 341 

set out from Santa P6 in a northly direction with the hope of 
finding a shorter route for Cahfornia and the Gulf Coast. 
The said priests arrived at a very large lake to which they 
gave the name of Salt Lake, "Lago Salado," by which name it 
is known to this date. The city of Salt Lake, today the 
capital of the State of Utah, is built near it. From there they 
had to turn back, because Autumn was quite far advanced, 
the mountains covered with snow and therefor impassable. 
They came back on their return trip by the way of Arizona. 
They crossed the Rio Colorado Grande (Big Red River), 
by swimming, near the place where the city of Yuma* now 
stands, visiting on their return the provinces of Zuni 
and Moqui, and reaching Santa Fe in the month of Decem- 
ber. By some writers it is claimed that Fathers Escalante 
and Dominguez visited the cliff dwellings in San Juan county, 
N. M., but 1 cannot agree with them because they do not give 
their authority for the statement and the Fathers do not say 
so in their report. 

The Form of Government Is Changed — Mendinueta Leaves New 
Mexico. 

In the year 1777 there was a political change, which, if it 
did not change the distressing situation in which New 
Mexico was plunged, it, at least, facilitated the means of 
more easily reaching the principal civil and military author- 
ities. Until that date, as the reader may have observed, the 
Governor of New Mexico was, as the President of the United 
States actually is. President and Commander-in-Chief of the 
Armj^, Civil Governor, and, at the same time. Captain Gen- 
eral of the province, having, in addition, power to transact 
all official business with the Viceroy of Mexico directly, a 
polic.y which, on account of the longdistance between Mexico 
and Santa Fe, caused much delay before the determinations 
of the King and Viceroy were known. The new order of 
things consolidated the Provinces of Durango, Sonora, 
Chihuahua and New Mexico into a single province, the four 
being denominated "Internal Provinces," and placing the 



*The place is not known with certainty, but, as it is not apparent 
that they crossed the Gila River, it is reasonable to deduce that it was 
below the place of its confluence with the Red River.— The Author. 



/' 



342 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

government of all of them in the hands of a chief with the 
title of "Commandante General" who practically was another 
Viceroy, as he acted independently of the Viceroy, but was 
indirectly subject to his commands. That political change 
deprived the Governor of New Mexico of the rank of Captain 
General. The time fixed by law for the administration of 
each governor was coming to its close, and Mendinueta had 
to deliver the government to his successor, who was Don , 
Juan Bautista de Anza; but, as Mendinueta had to leave 
before his successor arrived, he left Don Francisco Trevol 
Navarro acting as governor. He, Trevol, acted until the 
beginning of August, 1778. Mendinueta left Santa F6 in 
March, 1778, covered with glory, and leaving in history a 
luminous page in which his valuable services to New Mexico 
are most brilliantly reflected. 

Trevol and Anza — Terrible Battle With the Gomanches. 

Don Francisco Trevol Navarro governed as governor, ad 
interim, until the end of August, 1778, date in which Don 
Juan Bautista de Anza assumed the charge as the legitimate 
successor of Mendinueta. Scarcely had Don Bautista de 
Anza assumed charge of the government when news reached 
him that the Gomanches were again divided in different 
encampments, and that one of those encampments had as 
its chief, the most dreaded of the Comanche captains, whom 
the Spaniards knew quite well, for they had engaged him in 
battle a number of times, and whom they called "Cuerno 
Verde" (Green Horn); that that chief and his encampment 
had revolted again and were committing depredations. Gov- 
ernor de Anza set out in pursuit of him with a considerable 
body ot men, and with a tirm determination of administering 
Cuerno Verde and his band a severe castigation. The Span- 
iards met Cuerno Verde and his band after they had trav- 
eled 30 journeys to the northeast of Santa Fe, which, judg- 
ing by the distance the expedition must have traveled each 
day, the place of encounter must have been on thp Napeste 
(Arkansas) river, near the place occupied today by the city 
of Hutchison, in the state of Kansas. At the said point the 
Spaniards engaged Cuerno Verde and his band in bloody 
struggle, the result of which was the death of Cuerno Verde 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 343 

and five of his most famous captains, and the capture of 
nearly 200 Comanches, many horses, and a great number of 
buffalo robes. The army under the command of Anza was 
composed of 989 men made up of citizens, which formed the 
greater part, soldiers and friendly Pueblo Indians. On his 
return to Santa Fe, Anza was informed that in the Province 
of Moqui, the Indians w^ere dying of hunger because they 
had not had any crops that year nor the year before. On 
the strength of that information he made a trip to Moqui, 
carrying some provisions along, but before starting he 
wrote to the Commandant General, Knight of Croix, asking 
for help and provisions. 

Provinces of Moqui and Oraibe Surrender — Famine. 

The commandant sent provisions, and orders for the 
Spaniards to help the Moquis. Anza obtained the surrender 
of the Moqui province and of the pueblo of Oraibe which had 
always been the most obstinate in the matter of giving 
obedience to the Spanish authorities. In connection with 
the surrender of Oraibe an incident is recorded which 
can be well reckoned as an outburst of sublime patriotism; 
it is this: The Indians of said pueblo, together with the 
Indians of the Moqui province who had suffered for three 
consecutive years for want of crops, for during those three 
years not a drop of water fell, surrendered unconditionally to 
Governor Anza because they had no longer strength to fight. 
But the governor of the pueblo of Oraibe, when Anza advised 
him to surrender so as not to die of hunger, in spite of being 
so weak that he could scarcely speak, gave the Fathers and 
Anza this answer: 

"As my nation is now destined to perish the few of us who 
are left, wish to die in our homes and in our faith. Those 
of my subjects, who may not want to follow me can do what 
they please; so far as I am concerned, I cannot repay you 
with anything for what you give me, and being unable to 
defend myself because my strength fails me I prefer to die 
rather than submit."* 

*Anza's diary of the province of Moqui. The words of the Indian 
chief are not textual, but their equivalent is given in Spanish.— Thk 
Author. 



844 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

The chief died, and Anza and the priests were able to save 
the Indians by distributing, very meagerly, the provisions 
they had carried, and by taking out from each pueblo a num- 
ber of families v^hich they carried to other places where 
there was no famine. The loss to the Moqui province dur- 
ing those three years was 30,000 head of sheep and all their 
horses, their distressing situation being augmented hy an 
invasion made on them by. the Yutas and Navajoes and by 
pestilential epidemics such as small pox. 

The Indians attributed that terrible drought, famine, inva- 
sion and epidemic to the work of Providence, as a condign 
punishment for the death of Father Garges whom they had 
killed four years before. 

The events we have heretofore related are the most salient 
in the administration of Governor Don Juan Bautista de Anza 
which lasted until June, 1789, the year in which his suc- 
cessor arrived. This was Don Fernando de la Concha of whom 
we shall speak in the next paragraph. 

Don Manuel Flon is Appointed, But Does Not Assume the Govern- 
ment — Don Fernando de la Concha Comes. 

Don Manuel Flon was sent directly by the King of Spain as 
governor of New Mexico in the year 1785, but he never 
assumed the charge of his administration, and not even visited 
the province of New Mexico. The reason of his failure is not 
shown by history, and all that can be gathered, from the 
examination of old documents, is that, because his wife was a 
sister to the Viceroy's wife, she interposed her influence with 
the Viceroy to give Flon a more remunerative post. Don 
Fernando de la Concha came to New Mexico in the year 1789, 
and governed the province till 1794. Nothing occurred, during 
his administration, that may be classified as a historical event, 
except his having obtained, through the agency of the priests, 
authority from the Pope and the King for founding a seminary 
in New Mexico, but he was not able to carry it into effect, by 
reason of having been unable to raise the funds to realize his 
ideal. With that event the administration of Don Fernando 
de la Concha closed with the year 1794, and was succeeded by 
Don Fernando Chacon who governed until the year 1805. We 
shall speak of him in the next chapter. 



CHAPTER UL 



Interesting Events Happening Between the Years 1794 and 1814— 
Results of the Administration of Don Fernando Chacon — Father 
Ortega Visits New Mexico — Governor Alencaster, and Covernor 
Manrique — Navajoes Declare War — First Entry of American 
Merchants — Election of Don Pedro Bautista Pino to the Spanish 
Congress — His "History," and his Interesting Speech in Spain in 
1812. 

17944814. 



Don Fernando Chacon entered New Mexico as governor in 
the year 1794, finding the province in a state of peace, and its 
inhabitants employed in the development of the industries. 
That fact notvs^ithstanding, the Indians, the Navajoes and 
Apaches, did not fail, every now and then, to repeat their 
incursions and thefts. Don Fernando Chacon was a descen- 
dant of the first governor of that name who governed from 
1707 to 1712, as we have already seen, (ante chapt. 2 of this 
book), and hence, a man of illustrious origin and of high 
attainments in the science of government. During the four 
years he governed he made a journey to Mexico with the 
object of obtaining means for the promotion of the mining 
industries and in order to personally present before the 
Viceroy, the sad condition in which the province of New 
Mexico was sunk by the continual wars with the Indians. 

However, he could obtain nothing, and returned to New 
Mexico. * It is not known who acted as governor during his 
absence, but it is known that it was in the year 1800 that he 
went to Mexico, During Chacon's government, or in the 
year 1798, the first visit was made to New Mexico by the 
father known as the "Visitador," (Visitor) in the name of the 
Franciscan Order. The Visitador who came to New Mexico 
was Don Juan Maria Vivian de Ortega. It does not appear, 

* None of the historians who have written about New Mexico men- 
tion the trip of Chacon to Mexico but the author of this work has 
in his possession papers that confirm it. — The Author. 



346 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

either in the archives or in the written histories whether or 
not the civil authorities made any preparations for the recep- 
tion of so distinguished anofficial. The ecclesiastical authority, 
however, did make them, as it appears in a document (oficio) 
which is in the hands of the author, and which was issued by 
Fr. Francisco de Hocio, Custodio of New Mexico, on the 10th 
day of September, 1798, in the form of a circular addressed 
to the Curates of the following missions: Nambe, Canada, 
San Juan, Picuris, Taos, Abiquiii, Santa Clara, San Ildefonso, 
Jemes, Cochiti, Laguna, Isleta, Belen, Alburquerque, Sandia, 
San Felipe. That is the route which said circular followed, 
the curate of each mission annotating in the margin of said 
document the hour of arrival of the courier who carried it, 
and his hour of departure, so that when said document 
returned to Santa Fe, it had the signature of each of the 
parish priests of the missions indicated. The important part 
of said document is herewith reproduced textually: 

"Most dear Fathers and Brethren: I remit to your P. P. 
and R. R. the adjoining papers, which with this date, Sr. Don 
Jos6 Maria Vivian de Ortega has addressed to me, with the 
end that being informed of their contents you may execute 
and comply with what is therein expressed, for in not doing 
so, such a course would be most regrettable tome, and will, 
besides, oblige me to take the most serious and opportune 
measures which I hope your Paternities and Reverencies 
will avoid by being of my manner of thinking; for, as Prelate, 
(although unworthy), I do not procure any other thing than 
the tranquility, and repose of all, as Our Most Reverend 
Father Provincial recommends it to me most heartily; and, as 
Don Jos^ Maria Vivian de Ortega must begin his holy visit 
(as visitor to this Custodio assigned by his most Illustrious 
Lordship) on the 28th inst., after the order in the margin, 
your Paternities and Reverencies should be prepared for 
his opportune arrival, having the Sacred vessels, Holy Oleums, 
ornaments, administration books and books of confrater- 
nities, (where they may be found) together with everything 
pertaining to your ministry of cures of souls, as I have 
advised it before hand." 

The result of the inspection by the Visitor General is not 
related to us by the Fathers or by history, at least the author 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 347 

has not been able to find it. Let us again return to the gov- 
ernor. Perhaps Governor Chacon's rectitude of character 
more than anything else contributed to establish the peace 
and quietude which the province of New Mexico enjoyed 
during the eleven years of his administration, as will be seen 
by the official letter which he addressed to Don Manuel 
Artiaga, Justice of the Peace, (Alcalde Mayor) of Isleta,. 
which says literally: 

"L am informed that the horses taken by the Apaches have 
returned alone by themselves, and of the ones lately stolen 
from Tomds Garcia out of his ranch which is near Navajoe; and 
so far as concerns the mule whose owner has not appeared it 
would be acceptable that you should write to the Alcaldes of 
Alameda and Jemes giving them color, brand and other marks, 
so they might make inquiries as to whether it belonged to 
any individual in those jurisdictions, and if not to credit it on 
the pubhc funds. In regard to the two individuals whom you 
lately sent as prisoners to Sabinal, and to the other who 
residedat Belen,only your goodness could have condescended 
to their petition to be allowed to go with the campaigners; for 
besides being in want of provisions, they were traveling on 
foot for want of horses, and without any arms because they 
did not have them, all four of them being prisoners; there- 
fore 1 have directed the bearer, that if he meets them on the 
road, before they arrive at the appointed stopping place, to 
make them turn back, and if they don't, I have already taken 
the measures to arrest them again, and then send them anew 
for a third time, in which case you will let them know and 
understand that no consideration could absolve them from 
their exile, and you can grant them leave only to go out of the 
land and never to return, for on the contrary they will irre- 
missibly suffer imprisonment for ten years. 

"May God guard you M. A. 

Fernando Chacon. (Seal). 

"Santa F6, 21st of April, 1799.'- 

It was also during the administration of Governor Chacon 
that the resettlement of a town near the pueblo of Laguna 
was undertaken (which the author believes is no other than 
the town of Cubero or that of Cebolleta) as is indicated by an 



348 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

official document issued by Father Jose Benito Periero, 
Cur6 of la Lacuna entitled thus: "Notice of the Mission of 
Saint Joseph de la Laguna which is administered by Father 
Jose Benito Pereiro, a religious of the regular observance of 
our Holy Father Saint Francis, its progress in the year 1801, 
number of ministers who have served in it, the synod that 
it enjoys and total of souls with distinction as to classes and 
sexes in the province of New Mexico.'" 

Continuing Father Pereiro gives an account of the 
number of Indians and Spaniards who inhabited said pueblo 
and vicinity, whose population reached the number of 822, 
and the Father continues: 

"By the preceding exhibit it is manifest that since March 
19th, 1800, when the Spaniards and peoples of other classes 
began their new settlement near this mission, till the first of 
Januar}'^, 1801, there was an increase of one in the Spaniards 
and people of other classes: and from the first of said Jan- 
uary to the 20th of June of 1801, there was another, result- 
ing in an increase of two in the two years.'' 

Navajoe Nation Declares War. 

By the year 1804, the Navajoes committed many depreda- 
tions and thefts, causing at the same time, a great number of 
deaths among the farmers and herders, on account of which 
a campaign, consisting of citizens, which was sustained and 
helped by Governor Chacon, was undertaken against said 
Indians: but as those incursions, deaths and thefts, were of 
a local cliaracter, for they were committed in the district 
and pueblos of Abiquiii, the Cure of those missions issued a 
circular to the Cures of Belen, Isleta, Alburquerque, Sandia, 
San Felipe, Santa Ana, Jemes, and Cochiti imploring them 
to unite with him in praying to God for the success of the 
Spanish arms (the original is in the hands of the author) 
which circular textually says: 

Circular Imploring Prayers for the Success of the Spaniards- 

"Most dear Fathers and Brethren: — Notorious to all of 
your Paternities and Reverencies are the very grave tribu- 
lations experienced for more than two months by the deaths 
of Christians, and thefts of animals caused by the enemies. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 349' 

the Navajoes; and as the principal medium to placate the 
just anger of God, and to hold back the scourge of his justice 
are prayers and sacrifices offered bj' us as mediators between 
His Most High Majesty and men: and furthermore being 
pastors of their souls and to see to it that the crown of the 
King (God preserve him) is revered, and for the temporal 
weal of this province, believing your Paternities and Rever- 
encies equally animated by the same zeal for the cause of 
God, of the King, and of this soil, and I, as prelate, upon 
whom weighs down the double burden of my pastoral office, 
I pray, entreat, and even command your Paternities and 
Reverencies that, as soon as you see this circular you shall 
offer to the Almighty, with the greatest speed possible, a 
solemn mass with processions at the end of it, singing the 
litany of the Saints, and during the present campaign you 
shall recite in mass the prayer Pro Tempore Belli for the 
happy outcome of the arms of the King, and for our success 
in the pacification of the province." 

First North American Merchants — Entry of Lalande. 

In the year 1804 commercial trade was first introduced 
with the North Americans, that is, on that year the first 
North American merchant, named Juan Bautista Lalande, 
entered Santa Fe * He had been sent by William Morrison, 
a merchant from Illinois, to sell American merchandise. 
Lalande disposed of the merchandise, appropriated the 
money, and married a lady in Santa Pe, where he lived the 
rest of his life. With these events the administration of 
Don Fernando Chacon came to its end, and that of Don 
Joaquin del Real Alencaster, who ruled till 1808, began. 

*In another work of this author, •'Kesena Historico— Sinoptica de 
la Guerra Mexico — Americana," in Chapt. XV of said work, this 
author says that Juan Bautista Lalande was the first stranger who 
came to New Mexico. I said so because when I wrote said work I liad 
not found the data that contradicts that fact; I had followed the opin- 
ions of Prince, Salpointe, Davis, Gregg and other historians who not 
knowing of the existence of the data now in my possession, fell into 
the same error. Tiie reader will recall to have read in Gliapt. I of this 
fourth book (which see) that in the year 1743, there came to New- 
Mexico Jean de A'lay and Luis Marie. That historical error is there- 
fore corrected. — The Author. 



350 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Administration of Alencaster — The Strangers Continue Flocking In — 
A Military Official From the American Army Is Captured — Pur- 
chase of Louisiana. 

In June 1805, another stranger, a citizen from Kentucky, 
named James Pursley, a carpenter by trade, arrived and 
settled at Santa F6. Lalande and Pursley were followed by 
Zebulon Pike, an official of the American army. Pike did 
not come to New Mexico as an adventurer, but as an explorer. 
The American Government being desirous of learning the 
extension and the topographical conditions of the vast terri- 
tory it had bought from Napoleon in 1803, (Louisiana) sent 
Pike, in 1806, at the head of an escort, that he should make 
the necessary observations about the vast territory thus 
acquired three years before. Pike reached the northern 
boundary line of New Mexico and camped near the Rio 
Grande, near the place where the town of Alamosa, Colorado, 
stands, not thinking that he was within the boundaries of 
New Mexico, constructed a fortification in the place, and 
unfurled the American flag. For this act he was captured 
by the Spaniards with all his outfit, brought to Santa Fe, and 
from Santa Fe taken to Chihuahua. This occurred in 1807,* 
while Alencaster, who imprisoned Pike, w^as governor. 
Before the end of 1808 Alencaster went out as governor, and 
Don Alberto xVIainez was left governing ad interim. From 
that year on the Yankee civilization commenced to spread in 
New Mexico. With the contact thus established with the 
North Americans, who continued pouring in frequently, the 
hope also came that the innumerable sufferings which the 
poor Province of New Mexico had experienced would now 
commence to draw to a close. As nothing else worthy of 
mention happened during the administration of Alencaster 
and Mainez, we will follow the narration of events with the 
inauguration of Governor Jose Manrique, who assumed the 
charge at the close of 1808 and governed to the year 1314. 

*Read's: Reseiia Hist. Sinop. de la Guer. Mex. Americ. Cap. 15. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 351 

Administration of Manrique — First Delegate Sent to the Spanish Con- 
gress — Singular Method of his Election — Other North American 
Strangers Come — Don Pedro Bautista Pino Deputy to Spain 
Publishes the History of New Mexico — The Same Personage 
Pronounces an Interesting Address Before the Spanish Congress 
at Cadiz — Other Interesting Things. 

The administration of Governor Manrique was rich in 
valuable incidents and events of high historical interest, as 
it was, during his incumbency that for the first time New 
Mexico experienced the satisfaction felt when the citizens 
of a free people elect their own officials. At that time there 
was no council in Santa Fe to preside over the election of a 
deputy to the Cortes of Spain which was authorized for the 
first time by a Royal Statute of February 14th, 1810, for which 
reason Governor Manrique ordered a meeting of the Alcaldes 
of the different villas for the election of said deputy, the same 
falling upon Don Pedro Bautista Pino who started on the 
same year for Spain defraying his own expenses. Let us 
hear Pino relate to us the method used in his election and 
the representation he made before the Spanish Congress of 
the recommendations made to him by his constituents. We 
give the same, textually : 

Pino's Election. 

"All the towns of that province were invited by their gov- 
ernor for the purpose of an election as there was no council 
in the city, thus substituting it by Alcaldes and decorated 
persons who deserved public confidence, after assemblying 
them in the Capital, and reminding them of what is provided in 
the Royal Decree of the 14th of February, 1810, issued in the 
Island of Leon by the regency that installed the Central Junta 
of the Spains, the following (candidates) were selected: Don 
Jose Pino, Captain of Militia, and Alcalde of the Villa of Albur- 
querque ; Don Antonio Ortiz, Royal Ensign of the Province ; Don 
Diego de Montoya, Alcalde by First Instance of the Capital; 
Don Jose Garcia, from La Mora, Retired Lieutenant and 
Attorney of the Villa of Santa Cruz de la Canada; Don Jose 
Miguel Tafoya, Alcalde of Second Instance of the Capital, and 
first corporal retired from the veteran company where he 



352 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO, 

served 29 years; Don Jose Antonio Chavez, Alcalde of the 
First Instance of the Villa of Alburquerque; Don Miguel Gar- 
cia, Alcalde of the Villa of Santa Cruz de la Canada, and its 
dependencies; Don Miguel Antonio Baca, Alcalde of the 
Second Instance of the Villa of Alburquerque; Don Cleto 
Miera y Pacheco, Ordinary Alcalde of St. Charles of Alameda, 
and its dependencies; Don Tomds Ortiz, Alcalde of San Gero- 
nimo de Taos. All these citizens, presided over by the 
Governor, Lieutenant Colonel Don Jose Manrique, and in the 
presence of many distinguished persons from the pueblos 
showed their votes in favor of Don Antonio Ortiz, Don Juan 
Rafael Ortiz, Captain Don Jose Pino, Don Jose Pascual Garcia 
de la Mora, Don Bartolome Fernandez and Don Pedro Bau- 
tista Pino. 

Those who came out with a majority in their favor, in 
order to draw lots were Don Antonio Ortiz, Don Juan Rafael 
Ortiz, and Don Pedro Bautista Pino. And the lot having 
fallen to me, I am the same person who today has the honor 
of counting himself as one of those who compose this august 
and sovereign Congress of the Spains, and of asking per- 
sonally from Your Majesty the very urgent remedies for the 
evils from which that province sutfers. In order to effect 
such a thing I offered before hand to undertake the journey 
at my own expense, which voyage is of more than 900 leagues 
by land to the place of sailing at Vera Cruz, and 1900 by 
water as far as Cadiz. The abandonment of 22 persons 
which make up my family, my age and infirmities, finally all 
the hardships that I have suffered (this first son of that 
province who has come to Spain) I deem them all well em- 
ployed, if they but contribute to remedy the evils that afflict 
my fellow citizens. — (Pino "Not. Hist." Pino p. 36-37.) Pino 
continues saying: 

^'Particular Individuals Who Also Gave Me Instructions. 

"The Rev. Father Preacher, Fr. Francisco de Hocio, native 
from the province of Bilbao, in Spain, and Chaplain of the 
garrison of New Mexico since 26 years ago, a person very 
much loved by all the province, delivered me a copy book 
signed by his hand in 10 leaves to the folio and commences: 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 353 

"Prospect on plan over different solicitudes." Don Mariano 
de la Peiia, native of the city of Mexico, and resident in that 
province from his tender age delivered to me another one in 
5 leaves which commences: "Simple production which shows 
the good will of the one who signs it below." Don Ignacio 
Sanchez Vergara, alcalde of the pueblo of Jemes, and its 
accessories, a native also of the city of Mexico, delivered to 
me another one which commences- "Interesting points about 
this province." It is also signed by Don Jose Gutierrez. 
Capt. Bartolome Baca delivered to me a letter in half a sheet 
which commences: "By reason of my absence in the attend- 
ance of the meeting of judges etc." and ends "San Fernando 
de Tome 28th of October, 1811."" Don Juan Jos6 Silva, native 
of that province, delivered to me a paper which commences: 
"General points for the Lord Deputy." The entire contents 
both of the first official instructions, signed by those who 
certified my election and are here referred to, as well as 
those of these particular persons, Your Majesty may see 
whenever it be your sovereign pleasure. They will con- 
vince you of the urgency that I have laid down before you as 
to what is demanded; will also show you the ample services 
rendered your Majesty by those inhabitants; will give testi- 
mony of their physical and moral needs; will make for them- 
selves a place in the compassionate heart of your Majesty, 
that in due time the province may be drawn out of the 
abandonment and orphanage in which they have lived to this 
date on account of the indolence on the part of the govern- 
ment, and they shall finally show most clearly the imminent 
danger of its (the province of N. M.) being the prey of our 
American neighbors, leaving, in consequence, the other 
provinces exposed to the same fate, one after another. I 
hope my Lord, that Your Majesty will be profoundly pene- 
trated of this truth, considering that the purchase of 
Louisiana, which the United States has made has opened to 
that nation the gate to arm and mobilize against us the gentile 
nations, as well as to invade the province themselves, which 
once lost, it will be impossible to recover it. And as we are 
now in a position to prevent that evil let your Majesty take 
heed of these warnings which mere chance has caused them 



354 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

to come with me to Spain, so that delay in applying the 
remedy, may not be the cause of the evil which is so justly 
feared by the one who has had the honor to present it before 
Your Majesty." (Pino Not. Hist, p 36-37.) 

Petitions in Conformity with His Instructions With Which Ends the 
Memorandum- (Supra) Pino's Pathetic Appeals for Educational 
Establishments. 

"I have manifested, sir, the sad situation of that province 
which I have the honor to represent. It only remains for me 
to ask of Your Majesty the remedy which it speedily needs 
for its relief, and for its beginning to enjoy the prosperity of 
which it is susceptible. 

"For that purpose, and, in conformity with my instruc- 
tions, it becomes indispensable that Your Majesty condescend 
toaccede to the following petitions: 1st. The establishment of 
an Espiscopate in its Capital, Santa Fe, New Mexico; 2nd. The 
establishment of a seminary college of higher studies and of 
public schools for the teaching of the youth; 3rd. The uni- 
formity in military service, enlarging the four garrisons that 
have been mentioned, and paying all the neighbors who are 
ordered to be placed under arms (including the three militia 
companies already referred to) as it is done in Durango, 
Sonora, Texas and the other adjoining provinces; 4th. The 
establishment of civil and criminal courts in Chihuahua: 

"These four provinces, sir, should not be so called, if thej^ 
are well considered. What other province of the monarchy 
could count 50 years without having seen its bishop? Which one, 
at a distance of 600 leagues from the administration of justice'? 

None, however unhappy it might be the claims, then, 

which my province reduces to petitions, should be called 
just claims."' ("Not Hist." p. 90) 

In presenting his said memorandum to the Congress(which 
heafterwards sent topress inCadiz under the title of "Noticias 
Hist6ricas de Nuevo Mejico") he made several comments on 
the extremely sad situation of New Mexico, taking all the 
branches of industry, one by one, which, as we have already 
seen, were found in complete standstill, on account of the 
causes which the reader already understands, Mr. Pino 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 355 

makes a very correct and detailed exposition in the form of a 
summary or abridgement, but, as the reader is already 
acquainted with all the sufferings of which the abandoned 
people of New Mexico had undergone, the author would 
become wearisome if he repeated, by paraphrasing Pino, 
what the reader already knows: the author, however, takes 
leave to reproduce the words of Mr. Pino in reference to the 
little protection New Mexico received from the King, through 
the lack of an army; the scarcity of victuals and ammunitions 
of war. Mr. Pino draws a picture so vivid, so piteous, andso 
pathetic that one is overawed at the contemplation of the 
patriotism and abnegation of the inhabitants, of the aban- 
doned, despised and unfortunate province of New Mexico. 
Let the reader read that word picture of the Deputy, Don 
Pedro Bautista Pino, and, then, ask himself if it be possible 
to find any other people more forbearing in the history of the 
world. Pino speaks: 

"No province in Spanish America can show such services 
as the province of New Mexico. It already numbers 1 18 years 
of continual wars with the 33 savage nations which surround 
it, and to this date it has not lost a foot of ground from its 
ancient boundaries. It has cost her, indeed, many vigils and 
fatigues, great loss of people and property; yet its courage 
and constant adherence to the crown of Castile has caused 
her to despise the perils amid which it has repeatedly seen 
itself involved. 

"The intelligent people of the United States seem to be 
more deeply penetrated with this adherence and fidelity than 
the inhabitants of old Spain, and of the indiiference with 
which that province has been looked upon, and have, there- 
fore, endeavored to attract it to themselves by various means. 
Realizing that their position would make them owners of our 
other internal domains between both seas, south and north; 
and their commerce having been introduced into the interior 
of Mexico, they have tried both by coaxing us with an advanta- 
geous commerce, andby inviting us through mild and protect- 
ive laws, to annex this precious portion of territory to that of 
the Louisiana land, already purchased by them, and by which 
we are bounded: but neither by these means, nor by their 



356 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

threats in building forts in the immediate localities, nor even 
by arousing the savages against us have they succeeded in 
anything, except in losing their hopes in each one of their 
attempts. 

"In order to maintain this glory it has been necessary to 
keep constantly 1,500 men underarms. As the public treasury 
has disregarded their payment it was necessary to reduce the 
service to payment by corporation. These neighbors, then, 
work by turns in their military tasks with the same punc- 
tuality as if they were veterans. They have to present them- 
selves with a change of horses, firelocks, pistols, bows, 
arrows and shields. They assume well the obligation of 
paying for the ammunitions and the provisions necessary 
during the time they are kept under arms which is wont to 
be regularly 45 days, and sometimes two or three months of 
continuous, cruel war with savage nations who are already" 
armed and skilled in the dse of the guns. 

"This most hard and unsupportable burden which has no 
like in any other province, causes New Mexico certain evils 
more easily conceived, than explained; suffice it to say, that 
many of those unfortunates are ruined by a single campaign, 
for they have to sell their own clothing and their families's to 
provide themselves with ammunitions and provisions. To 
say it all in one word, this evil reaches up to such an extreme 
that even the liberty of their sons is sacrificed in order to 
comply with that obligation as a neighbor. This is one of the 
principal motives of the backwardness of prosperity in that 
province, and the source of the complaints of its inhabitants 
by reason of not being uniformed in the service with the 
others. 

Veteran Company. 

"The King only pays for 121 men (soldiers) at 240 annual 
pesos (dollars) per man distributed, as follows: 39, in the 
camp of horses (such is called the perambulating camp); 12, 
in the body guard or soldiers quarters of the Capital; 7, in 
Sevolleta, the frontier of the Apache Indians. The rest, in 
other assignments; and those quartered with other neighbors 
who pay their own expenses. 

"The 102 Spanish towns referred to are also paid for by the 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 357 

neighbors; so that for the purpose of keeping that province 
in obedience to the crown, those neighbors have to this date 
paid the following sums, to wit: 

loOO soldiers daily C^( 240 duros each per year (as the 

121 paid for by the treasury) are in 118 years . .$42,480,000 
The forces referred to cost (at least) 5,009 duros * 610,000 



Total $43,090,000 

Other North Americans Gome in Under McKnight, Glen, Becknel 
and Gooper. 

In 1812, an expedition came from St. Louis, Missouri, to 
Santa Fe composed of two adventurers, with an Irishman at 
the head named McKnight, bringing along with them a pack 
of mules loaded with merchandise. At Santa F6, they were 
looked upon as spies; their effects were confiscated, and they 
were sent to Chihuahua as prisoners. The same year two 
others strangers came, one of them named Glen, (a merchant 
from Ohio) who came to sell merchandise, and the other 
called Becknell. These were followed the same year by 
others to the number of 15 under the command of an indivi- 
dual called Cooper, also with merchandise. Witli this last 
expedition of merchants, the trade between New Mexico and 
Missouri became established and from New Mexico it 
extended down to Chihuahua, from whence on April 3rd, 
1839, an expedition of Mexican merchants set out for the 
United States with a caravan of seven wagons which also 
traversed the Territory, but did not touch the capital, Santa 
Pe. 

Interesting Speech of Mr. Pino — Forseeing the Ghange of Flags. 

On November 28th, 1812, Don Pedro Bautista Pino delivered 
before the Spanish Congress an interesting speech, elacid- 
ating the reasons he had to demand from the nation the things 
which, as the reader already knows, he had previously asked 
in his memorandum or exposition, to wit: — The establishment 
of an Episcopate in Santa Pe; the establishment of a Semin- 
ary College and public schools, in the same place; the uniform- 

* Pino's Not. Hist. p. 41 to 4.!. 



358 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

ity in the military service; tlie establishment of a Tribunal 
of Justice in Chihuahua, and the right that New Mexico be 
authorized to send a Deputy to the courts of equity at the 
Island of Santo Domingo. The speech which we have been 
referring to has never before been published, but the author 
of this work, in April, 1910, through the agency of Don 
Antonio Aragon Montejo, of Madrid, Spain, obtained a copy, 
written by hand by Mr. Montejo, from the oflicial daily 
records of the Spanish Congress of those years, and in that 
way he can lay before his readers the interesting words of 
Mr. Pino. 

At that date, November 20, 1812, Spain was at war with 
France and other nations in Europe, and with all her colonies 
in North America, a reason why New Mexico was ignored by 
the Spanish government; for as Mexico was also struggling 
against Spain for its independence, it could not receive, 
neither from the Viceroy, in Mexico, nor from the King, in 
Spain, the attentions which Mr. Pino was so energetically 
demanding. Mr. Pino, referring to the causes which origin- 
ated the war in Mexico against Spain and the other colonies 
of North America, used the following language: 

"Sir: — I have heretofore spoken in regard to the interests 
of our province. I must do it also in regard to any point 
which touches the general weal. So it is forestated to me by 
my constituents in their instructions and dictated by my own 
conscience. I ask of Your Majesty all your gracious atten- 
tion on what I am going to treat about. It is nothing less 
than the main basis for the pacification of the countries of 
America which are now found in the throes of revolution. 

"Let us speak frankly: Neither our wise constitution nor 
the resolutions heretofore taken by Your Majesty are suffi- 
cient to extinguish that flame. Nothing, either, will be 
accomplished by the measures which your governing Vice- 
roys may take. Blood will continue to flow so long as the 
seeds of discontent are not taken away, or the origin of it is 
eliminated. Arms may succeed in imposing respect, but 
cannot smother the fire which necessity stirs up." Only a 
decided measure, by doing justice, shall secure tranquility. 

"The clans, sir, those descendants from Africa, without 
whom the head-promoters could not have made any head-way 



- ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 359 

towards independence, and whom those loyal sons of Spain 
could not have faced; these, who are many, are found without 
any landed property, and are now, without any hopes of ever 
having it, according to the decree of Your Majesty of March 
19, 1811. By it, not even the domiciled inhabitants can enter 
into the enjoyment of what the law grants other people's 
lands for cultivation." 

Mr. Pino continues commenting, with all the strength of 
his soul upon the sufferings of the poor people of New Mexico 
up to the point, when, rapt into ecstasy, and, as though he 
addressed the inhabitants of New Mexico themselves, he 
gives full vent to the sentiments of his heart, and, with tears 
in his eyes, pronounced in a tiight of sublime eloquence, the 
following words: "Unhappy beings, victims of the caprice of 
men! You are not allowed to congregate, nor to form a society 
anywhere!" 

"You are compelled to live in the forests, like the wild 
beasts — yes, as the tenants of powerful landed lords! You 
are despoiled and expelled at will from place to place as 
though you were strangers, and this, — your native land! If 
you attempt to domicile with others, you are excluded by a 
decree of the Sovereign Congress for the partition of lands! 
Where will you miserable creatures go to put up your 
dwelling?" 

Mr. Pino's patriotic harangue was nothing more than the 
last appeal of a people which, for more than a hundred years, 
had been suffering anguish, famine and criminal abandon- 
ment on the part of the crown which had converted the 
inhabitants of New Mexico, into a province of wretches, who 
without any other blame than that of having peopled these 
unknown regions, and of having defended them with their 
blood in order thus to expand more and more the glories of 
Spain, had been held in cruel neglect and reduced to a state 
of semi-barbarism from which their only hope depended on 
the consummation of the independence of Mexico, in which 
they were also entirely deceived; for when the independence 
of Mexico became consummated in 1821, the troubles and 
sufferings of the sons of New Mexico increased without they 
coming to enjoy any rest, protection and real civilization 
until the year 1846, in which Providence decreed the change 



360 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

of governments which placed New Mexit^o under the aegis 
of the government of the United States, the "greatest and 
most powerful (as General Palacio said, post) of all the gov- 
ernments under the sun," New Mexico entering from that 
date into the enjoyment of real peace and into the advance- 
ment and development of its riches. Here this chapter closes, 
and with it, our references to Governor Manrique. In the 
next, we shall treat of the stirring events which took place in 
New Mexico from 1814 to 1840. 



CHAPTER IV. 



Names of Governors Continued — End of the Spanish Covernment and 
Beginning of the Mexican Covernment — Two Colleges are Estab- 
lished — First Provincial Deputation — Visit of the Bishop from 
Durango - The First Newspaper — Bent's Fort — Covernor Perez 
Enters — Chimayo Revolution— Death of Covernor Perez and 
Other Officials — Revolutionary Covernment — Patriotism of Armijo 
and Other Citizens — Death of the Insurrectionary Chiefs — Triumph 
of Law and Justice — Other Incidents — Armijo Assumes Com- 
mand of Forces — The Insurgents Surrender — Arrest of Their 
Chiefs — A Seditious Individual is Left at Santa Cruz — Issues a 
Proclamation of Insurrection — Claims of American Merchants. 



List of Governors 1815-1846. 



Prom 181 to 1840 there were the following governors: 
Mainez, tj 1817; Pedro Maria Allande, to 1818; Facundo 
Melgares, (the last under Spanish regime) to 1822; Francisco 
Xavier Chavez, from 1822 to 1823 (first governor and political 
chief under the Mexican Government), with Antonio Vis- 
carra ad interim, for only a few months in 1822. In 1823, 
Antonio Viscarra; Bartolome Baca to 1825; Antonio Narbona, 
to 1827; Jose Antonio Chavez, from 1828 to 1831: Santiago 
Abreu from 1831, to 1833; Francisco Sarracino, with Juan 
Rafael Ortiz, ad interim, and Mariano Chavez, ad interim, 
to 1836; in 1837, Don Albino Perez: from 1837 to 1838, 
Pedro Munoz, ad interim, and Jose Gonzales, Revolutionary 
Governor. From 1838 to 1840, Manuel Armijo, with Mariano 
Martinez de Le Janza {ad interim, from 1844 to 1845), Jose 
Chavez, (ad interim, in 1845) and Juan Bautista Vigil, ad 
interim, for a few days in 1840. That is, Don Manael Armijo 
was the Governor, dejacto et de jure, from 1838 to 1846, with 
the exception of the intervals in which Martinez, Chdvez, and 
Vigil acted ad interim, as aforesaid. 

During the administrations of Mainez, Allande, and Mel- 
gares, the last three under the Government of Spain, nothing 



4F '''''^*f^-- 



,/' 






f 



General Manuel Aniiijo, New Mexico's last Governor under 
Mexican Authority. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO, 363 

of public interest is recorded in history, and for that reason, 
and for the further i-eason of Mexico having become an 
Empire in 1821, we commence the next paragraph with a 
new governor under a new government. 

End of the Spanish, and Commencement of the Mexican Government- 

With the inauguration of Governor Francisco Xavier 
Chdvez, in the year 1822, the domination of the Spanish 
government forever ended in New Mexico, and the Mexican 
government started, not as a republican government, but 
rather as an imperial government with Don Agustin de Itur- 
bideas first Emperor who had already been crowned, as such, 
in Mexico, on March 4th, 1821, which government lasted until 
the year 1824, in which the empire was turned into a republic, 
with the elections of Generals Guadalupe Victoria, and 
Nicolas Bravo as President and Vice-President, respectively. 
The only thing that happened between 1822 and 1823, was, as 
we have said, the change of government with amplification of 
powers to the governor who immediately could act as gov- 
ernor and political chief, and the fact of the first Mexican 
Congress having decreed, or rather, ratified the decree of 
the Spanish Congress of a previous date establishing a 
Bishopric in New Mexico, a decree which, without the cause 
of its failure having ever been known, was never carried into 
execution. 

New Mexico With Chihuahua and Durango are Consolidated Into One 
State — Territorial Form of Covernment is Established — Estab- 
lishment of Two Colleges — Fr. Fernandez Comes as Vicar Ceneral. 

In January 1824, the governor being Don Bartolom^ Baca, 
the Mexican Congress consolidated the provinces of Chi- 
huahua, Durango, and New Mexico into a whole entity giving 
it the name of "Estado Interino del Norte.'" That decree, 
however, was of no use because of the protest of Durango,, 
from which sprung as a result of the protest, the organiza- 
tion of New Mexico as a Territory. In 1825, while D. 
Antonio Narbona was governor, New Mexico was visited by 
the celebrated preacher Father Agustin Fernandez, who had 
before, in 1822, visited the Californias, as inspector sent 
thither by Emperor Iturbide, settling in New Mexico as- 



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Fiu--Nimilf of lt-lt<-i- Iroiu (ieneriil Maiiiicl Arniijo to Miiiuh'I A Ivan v. -J h this 
letter Arniijo admits that he was a eowarcl — (See translation post.) 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 36& 

Vicar General of the Territory. In the year 1826 the said 
Vicar established in Santa Fe a public school and college, 
and Father Martinez, another school and college in the town 
of Taos, those two schools and colleges being the first seats 
of learning, deserving the name of schools, that were estab- 
lished in New Mexico with the exception of the ones the 
Franciscan fathers had already established in the missions, 
as we have already seen. In the same year a decree from 
the Sovereign Government arrived in Santa Fe in which, 
those who had been convicted and sentenced as thieves, wera 
forbidden to enter the army, which decree both on account 
of being the first that reached New Mexico under the 
Mexican Government as well as on account of its singular 
provisions is herewith given in tact. The decree follows: 
"Department of War and Marine Section 5. His Excellency, 
The President of the United Mexican States has been pleased 
to aidress to me the following decree: 

"The President of the United Mexican States to the inhab- 
itants of the Republic, know ye: That the general Congress 
has decreed the following: 

"No one who has been convicted and sentenced as a thief, 
shall be applied to for the service of arms during the time 
of his sentence. Pedro Paredes, President of the Senate. 
Bernardo Gonzales Perez de Angulo, President of the House 
of Deputies. Demetrio del Castillo, Senator and Clerk. 
Joaquin Miguel Gutierrez, Deputy Clerk. 

"Therefore I command it to be printed, circulated and 
given due compliance. Palace of the Federal Government at 
Mexico, May 20th, 1826. Guadalupe Victoria, A. D., Manuel 
Gomez Pedraza. 

"I communicate it to you for your intelligence and conse- 
quent effects. 

' God and Liberty, Mexico, May 20th, 1826. G. Pedrpza. 

"And I insert it in the sequel for its pubUcation and com- 
pliance, giving me advice of its receipt. 

"God guard you for many years. Santa Fe, July 18, 1826, 
A, Narbona (Seal). 

"The first appointed constitutional Alcalde of this city." 

Don Manuel Armijo first commenced to govern towards 
the close of 1827 and governed to the year 1828, when he 



366 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

was succeeded by Don Antonio Viscarra, acting ad interim^ 
who governed to the close of that year, coming next as gov- 
ernor Don Jose Antonio Chavez, who governed to the begin- 
ning of 1831. 

Other Foreigners Come In — The "Real de Dolores is Discovered. 

From the year 1822 to the year 1827, the following named 
foreigners came into New Mexico: Charles Roubidoux and 
Baubien, who were followed afterwards by Lucien B. Max- 
well, Joseph Clouthier, Frederick Muller, Ceran St. Brain, 
Kit Carson, Charles Bent and others, all of them settling at 
Taos, d urine: the administrations of Governors Bartolom^ 
Baca, Antonio Narbona, Manuel Armijo and Antonio Vis- 
carra, thus increasing the number of North Americans in 
New Mexico. The year following (1828) Don Ignacio Cano 
discovered the mineral called "Real de Dolores" and after- 
wards obtained, in company of Antonio Ortiz, a grant cover- 
ing several square miles of mineral land known as "the 
Ortiz Mine Grant." 

History of the "Provincial Diputacion — First Public School Law — 
Appointment of the First Gefe Politico — Bishop of Durango Visits 
New Mexico — First Newspaper — Bent's Fort. 

The first session of the first "Diputacion Provincial'* 
(Provincial Deputation) held in Santa Fe under the Imperial 
Government of Emperor Iturbide, April 15, 1822, was pre- 
sided by Acting Governor Facundo Melgares (the last of 
Spain's governors in New Mexico), with Juan Bautista Vigil, 
member, as secretary. As to who constituted the full mem- 
bership of the Assembly the journal of said Assembly (No. 
1, p. 8) is silent, as it is also regarding the time and manner of 
the election of said members, but Chdvez, Gallegos and Pino 
^re mentioned as members of a committee. At the session of 
April 27, 1822, (Journal No. 3), Melgares still presided with 
Vigil as secretary, and Messrs. Ortiz and Martin, or Martinez, 
are mentioned as members of a committee. It was at this 
session that the first public school law was passed (vide Chap, 
■on Education, post). 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 367 

Don Francisco Xavier Appointed First Gefe Politico — Melgares First 
Military Governor. 

It was at tliat session of the "Diputacion Provincial'* that 
the formal announcement was made of the appointment 
of Don Francisco Xavier as Gefe Politico of the province, and 
of the Acting Governor Pacundo Melgares as Military Gov- 
ernor. The official proceedings of that date (Journal No. 17, 
page 13, now in the office of the Surveyor General of New 
Mexico), show that on the day stated "the Acting Civil and 
Military Governor Pacundo Melgares presented to the assem- 
bly the presidential order appointing Don Francisco Xavier 
as Gefe Politico and said Acting Governor as Military Gov- 
ernor of the Province of New Mexico."' *The next session of 
the "Diputaci6n"" in said year of 1822, was presided by Gov- 
ernor Xavier, in August, and in December by the Military 
Governor. At its session of August, 1822, the Assembly 
received an official report from Don Lorenzo Gutierrez, 
Deputy from New Mexico to the "Diputacion'" of Durango, 
giving an account of his services. At the session of December 
17, 1823, an official communication from Don Rafael Alarid, 
New Mexico's Deputy to the National Congress is presented, 
but the journal in this case, as in the case of Deputy Lorenzo 
Gutierrez, is silent regarding the contents of said communi- 
cations or reports. (Journals of December 17 and December 
20, 1823. In New Mexico Surveyor General's Office). At the 
said session of December 20, 1823, supra, two claims were 
presented by Francisco Perez y Aguirre and Francisco Rivas, 
respectively, for services as "Representatives from the Pro- 
vince of New Mexico," but the journal, as in the other cases 
cited, fails to show the amounts claimed nor the date, place 
and kind of services rendered. 

* In my "Historia Ilustrada de Nuevo Mexico'" at pag-e 236. it 
appears that the first Assembly or "Diputacion Provincial"' met in 
Santa Fe in the year 1831, and was presided by Fatlier Martinez. That 
is an error, or rather a mistake, which was not noticed until after it 
was too late for correction. One whole paragraph was omitted inad- 
vertentlv.— The Author. 



368 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Bishop's Visit to New Mexico. 
In the year of 1833, His Most Illustrious Lordship Don 
Antonio Zubiria, Bishop of Durango, made an extended visit to 
all the parishes of New Mexico, finding nearly all the temples 
in complete destitution of ornaments for the celebration of 
the holy sacrifice of the mass.* Two years before, in 1829, 
Charles Bent and one of his brothers had built on the Napeste 
River a fortress which has come to be known in history by 
the name of "Benfs Fort."' 

The First Newspaper, El Grepiisculo. 
In the year of 1835 a step of great importance was taken in 
New Mexico for it was then that the first move of real pro- 
gress was made, that date adorns by far, more the pages of the 
history of that epoch, because of Father Antonio Jose Marti- 
nez's foresight in realizing the great power of the press to dif- 
fuse civilization, to destroy ignorance, by making itself the 
voice bearer of the ideas which implant the spirit of true 
liberty and civism in the inhabitants of a nation, establishing 
at very great expense and untold sacrifices, the first printing 
press in New Mexico and publishing, at Taos, the tirst news- 
paper, under the name of "ElCrepiisculo'' (The Dawn). On 
this press Father Martinez printed books for his school as well 
as books of devotion. He published, also a memorial to the 
Mexican Government, in pamphlet form, reference to which 
is made in another part of this work, which he sent to the 
President of Mexico, General Antonio Lopez Santa Anna.f 

New Mexico Made Department — Territory Abolished — Governor Albino 
Perez — Successor of Chavez and Sarracino — His Inaugural Ad- 
dress — Chavez and Sarracino Covern Again — Act at Intervals — 
The Chimayo Insurrection — Death of Covernor Perez and Other 
Officials — Revolutionary Covernment — Patriotism of Armijo and 
Others— Death of the Insurgent Chiefs — Triumph of Law and 
Justice — Other Incidents —American Merchants Make Claims 
Before the Mexican Covernment for Damages Caused by the 
Insurrectos. 
Governor Albino Perez came to New Mexico direct from 

Mexico in the month of April, 1835, and at once entered into 

* Salpointe: Soldiers of the Cross. 

t The Author of this work "has this Memorial. 



ILLUSTRATED HJSTOKY OF NEW MEXICO. 369 

the discharge of his duties as Gefe Pohtico and commanding 
military officer of New Mexico. On the 20th day of June, of 
the same year he made his inaugural address in the city of 
Santa Pe. *He was a Colonel in the regular army of Mexico, 
prior to his coming to New Mexico, and had distinguished 
himself as a military officer during his long service in the 
Mexican Army. That Governor Perez had already received 
a very favorable impression regarding the patriotism and 
noble qualities of the people of New Mexico, as well as of 
the promising appearance of the country at large, and that 
he was entertaining the hope that the new constitution, 
which had just been adopted by Mexico was to be much 
more beneficial to New Mexico than the former system of 
government is shown in his address. Regarding the 
patriotism and loyalty of the people of New Mexico he said 
at the opening of his address. 

"Fellow Citizens: A number of extraordinary circum- 
stances come to my assistance and furnish me with the 
most pleasant data to address you for the tirst time. It 
is today just sixty-four days that I have the honor of 
being your governor, and already have a thousand proofs 
of your peaceful habits and of your love for order, 
of your obedience to justice and of the full complement 
which you possess of all the civic and moral virtues with 
which the eternal God has seen fit to endow you in the 
enjoyment of this majestic retirement of your peaceful 
and quiet lives. " 

How little did the noble man know, or even imagine that 
before 18 months had expired, from that date, some of the 
very people he was praising were to assassinate him in the 
most cowardly manner. Yet his very efforts to enforce the 

*The original of this historical address is in the hands of Don 
Demetrio P^rez of Las Vegas, who is the only surviving- son of Gov. 
Perez. Don Demetrio was about ten years of age when he came with 
his father, w^as present when his father delivered his said address, and 
it is due to him that I have been able to obtain a copy of the precious 
document which was published in La Voz del Pueblo of Las Vegas, in 
1S91, from which paper Hon. Antonio Lucero, Secretary of the State 
of New Mexico, kindly furnished me with a copy taken by himself, on 
the 30th day of DecemV)er U)1L— The Author. 



370 ■ ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

provisions of the new constitution for the betterment of the 
people's sad situation were being misconstrued and used as 
the mainstay of the rebellion which we are now to describe. 
Referring to the triumph of the National Government over 
its enemies, and to the retroactive salutary effects which the 
whole countrj^ was anticipating from the workings of the 
new Constitution, Governor Perez said: 

"In rejoicing over the triumph of the Supreme Gen- 
eral Government, the approval of the Constitution, the 
triumph of order and the establishment of your social 
liberties, I want to emphasize my w^ords. To be sure it 
has been a long time since the enemies of the public 
peace have been endeavoring, with all their might, to 
raise the standard of rebellion, without which they can- 
not get along, it seems: to those who have not looked 
upon the actual conditions of things with indifference, it 
must be apparent how persistently, how scandalously 
they have been making preparations to overthrow a truly 
paternal government, a government that has been so 
zealous of Mexican blood."' 

The Governor in thus referring to the enemies of the law- 
fully established government was uttering a prophesy of 
what these very seditious elements were planning, under 
his very presence, some of those he considered his best and 
most loyal friends being among the principal agitators, to 
overthrow his government, and to behead him and, thus, to 
stain their hands with his innocent blood. 

Change of Government. 

Perez succeeded Governors Sarracino and Chavez. The 
people of New Mexico were in extreme misery and in gen- 
eral discontent on account of the abolition the year before 
(1834) of the territorial form of government and the organi- 
zation of a new departmental government, as well as on 
account, according to the documents of the revolutionists, of 
the bad administration of Governor Sarracino, w4io had so 
far forgotten his duties in protecting the inhabitants, that 
the latter did not now even plant their lands on account of 
the imminent peril to which they exposed themselves; for 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 371 

the savage Indians, the Navajoes, Yutas, and Apaches made 
their incursions dailyj kilhng many of the settlers, steahng 
their stock and, in many cases, even their wives and chil- 
dren, the situation reaching to a point that many of the 
prudent citizens appHed to Sarracino for authority to leave 
for California, a thing that was also denied them. From a 
document of that date which is in the hands of the author (it 
is the property of Don Eusebio Chacon) what follows is 
drawn out: 

"Such was the state of New Mexico when it was learned 
that Col. Don Albino Perez was coming as governor. On 
announcing him as such, the supreme government gave dis- 
tinguished recommendations of his character. This announce- 
ment inspired the hope of an amelioration of conditions, both 
because his talent and experiences made him feared, as 
because the influence of his elevated rank and official rela- 
tions in the capital of the republic would, it was thought, 
enable him to obtain from the supreme government the help 
which New Mexico needed so imperatively. The arrival of 
Mr. Perez at Santa Fe strengthened the idea which had been 
formed of him at the announcement of his coming. His 
personal presence, the relations which his committee and 
the gentlemen who had access to him made of the great 
services he had rendered to his country, the warlike actions 
in which he had been distinguished, the plans he had already 
formed to set on foot the troop of the territory, and to pro- 
cure for it the necessaries for its support, and to annihilate 
the Navajoe Indians who, at this time, were perpetually har- 
rassing the inhabitants, made the generality of the people 
form a very promising opinion of him. He placed, in fact, the 
troop under arms, and at the beginning made it per- 
form the military services with more efficiency and exact- 
ness than what had been previously observed; he imparted 
energy to the administration, and in some instances of con- 
tentions gave proof of an impartial integrity. When the pro- 
ducts of the caravans (the only resources upon which the 
governors in New Mexico depended to maintain the troop 
and the government— The Author) were exhausted he 
obtained, under his personal responsibility from the foreign 
trade, the necessary help for the maintenance of the troop 



372 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

and employees in the shape of loans going as far in this 
policy as the means of the loaners permitted, but as he could 
not get enough to continue the services of the troop by this 
means, and as he received nothing from Mexico in spite of his 
repeated demands, he addressed himself to the natives of the 
country, who, he judged, might be able to advance him what 
was needed through the credit they had; whereupon he was, 
since then, observed to visit more frequently the houses of 
certain gentlemen who, without heeding his pretensions 
about the influence they had, attempted to use him in favor- 
ing their plans for the accumulation of wealth, fostering law 
suits and grudges which they had among themselves, and 
they made him tigure, in spite of himself, in childish intri- 
gues; whatever his opinion might be in these particulars, 
he was unable to keep within bounds all interested parties: 
whence enmities, intrigues and plans flowed with the object 
of damaging themselves and damaging him, distracting his 
attention by means of the intrigues and misrepresentations 
in which they assiduously engaged. Lacking in means to 
maintain the troop in arms he was forced to disband it, that 
it might seek its subsistence the best way it could, and the 
employees and officials were reduced to what their individual 
credit or the credit of the governor could procure them, 
w^hich, however, was not sufficient Co maintain their ranks. 
This circumstance, together with the bad will (^ certain pri- 
vate persons, gave rise to recriminations in which they 
reciprocally imputed to one and another the general calamity. 
Some employees were charged with unfaithfulness and 
corruption in the management of their duties. There were 
suspensions of employees, and parties were designated 
to assassinate certain designated persons, and tinally every- 
thing became confusion. The Navajoe tribe was not, in the 
meantime idle; it committed depredations of everykind, and 
everywhere; it captured great numbers of stock, carried 
captives away, burned various persons alive in their homes, 
and sent parties to commit murders near Santa Pe, which 
was the jurisdiction best guarded in all the territory. A 
general campaign, it is true, was made to which the gov- 
ernor went in person, but it was productive of no better 
effect than that of loosing the best part of the animals it 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 373 

carried and thereby complete the ruin of many unhappy 
farmers. The people, amid many misfortunes, were seek- 
ing to find the cause of their misadventures; some attri- 
buted it to the corruption and bad management cf the 
employees giving occasion for the charges which the com- 
plainants scattered; others to the governor, who, with the 
number of officials that accompanied him, consumed the 
property of the troop which, well directed, could defend 
the territory. The most impartial persons considered then 
that, in fact, the administration and coming of Mr. P^rez to 
New Mexico had really been an increase of all the evils, 
both on account of the more rapid absorption of the scanty 
resources of the country which were eaten up in salaries and 
expenses of his accompaniment, as on account of the dif- 
ferences and intrigues he tolerated in his administration 
without producing any good whatsoever which resulted from 
his qualifications and good foresight. The new constitution 
arriving at a time when the people were already so depressed 
by misery and had such a bad opinion of the administration 
seeing with disgust that they had to pay contribution taxes, * 

* The tax or revenue law referred to by the last cited author (the 
first of its kind passed in New Mexico) was in fact a somewhat op- 
pressive measure. Said law had not been found until very recently. 
It was found by the Author of this work after the publication of the first 
Spanish Edition of this History. All former writers on New Mexico 
history knew that such a law had been passed and referred to its drastic 
provisions, on general information. I had to do the same thing- when 
I wrote my said first Spanish edition. Now that said law is in my posses- 
sion 1 can say that its approval by Governor Albino P^rez was one 
of the principal, if not the first, and immediate causes of that revolt, 
which culminated in the cowardly assassination of Governor Pdrez and 
the rest of the Territorial officials. The said law was passed by the 
City Council and signed by Governor Pdrez on the 9th day of June, 
1836. It contains eleven sections, or subdivisions, and it pi'ovides 
that a tax of two dollars shall be paid for each vehicle bringing 
foreign merchandise into the city, twenty-five cents for each animal 
employed by foreign merchants in introducing their merchandise into 
New Mexico: two dollars per head for horses and mules brought for 
sale into New Mexico. It fixed the license for the cutting of timber for 
lumber at $5.00 per month. Foreign permanent merchants had to pay 
$2.00 per month. For driving herds of cattle or sheep through the 
streets of the capital the owner, before selling said]animals had to pay 
from twenty to twenty-five cents par haad. For theaters and all other 



374 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

which would have no other inversion than to support the 
luxury and waste of a few in Santa Fe without entering upon 
the merits or demerits which the constitution might in itself 
possess." 

An election was held in conformity with the constitution 
from which resulted the choice of Mr. Ramon Abreu as 
prefect of the first district, a choice which caused much 
dis-satisfaction among the enemies of P^rez who did not 
cease to foster intrigues against his administration, a dis-sat- 
isfaction which reached its climax in the formation of a 
council at Santa Cruz de la Canada, to which the name of 
"Canton" was given, which was composed of twelve mem- 
bers, all of them ignorant and depraved criminals. In the 
Canton a general uprising was decreed together with the 
death of Governor Perez and the other officials and employees. 
On the 3rd day of August, 1837, the following plan or platform 
was promulgated by the leaders of the rebellion. 

"Long live God and the nation and the faith of Jesus Christ 
for the principal points we defend are the following: 

1st. To be with God and the nation and the faith of Jesus 
Christ. 

2nd. To defend our country to the shedding of our last 
drop of blood to obtain the victory sought after. 

3rd. Not to admit any plan of department. 

4th. Not to admit any taxation. 

5th. Not to admit the bad orders of those who are trying 
to effect it."'* 

entertainments $2.00 for each performance. For each dance the license 
was fifty cents. All foreigners, as well as natives of New Mexico but 
residing- outside of Santa F^, had to report themselves to the Alcalde 
within three days after their arrival, each one had to state his business 
and occupation and on failure to do so they were to be fined in the sum 
of $10.00 for each violation of the law. The Justices of the Peace through 
out the Territory were charg-ed with the duty of making- a complete 
list of all the inhabitants within their respective districts, and also to 
state the profession, employment or occupation of each of said persons. 
Said Justices were further charged with the duty of punishing- all 
drones, or idle persons, who could not prove that they earned their 
living- by lawful means. The .Justices in case of failure to comply with 
the requirements of the said law were to be publicly censured and to 
pay a fine of five dollars besides forfeiting- their office— The Author. 
*The original is in possession of the author. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 375 

The malice of the rebels had no limits, for they used the 
sacred name of Jesus Christ to cover up with it the atrocity 
of the crime they were to perpetrate, increasing their 
wickedness by another crime, that of inducing the Pueblo 
Indians to make common cause with them by means of tricks, 
lies, and calumnies, helping them to inscribe the blackest 
page in the history of New Mexico. Governor Perez was 
informed of what was going on and was advised to leave in 
haste that he might save his life, but he believed at first that 
the rumor was nothing more than an exaggerated unrest, and 
contented himself with sending some threatening messages 
and orders to Juan Jose Esquivel, Alcalde of 

Battle of Santa Cruz. 

Santa Cruz, who was the chief mover of the revolution, those 
of the Canton availed themselves of the apathy with which 
the governor at first viewed the beginning of the revolution, 
organized a numerous army and determined upon the plan 
of investing the Capital. Until then Perez did not realize 
the magnitude of what he had called an "exaggerated 
unrest;" he caused troops to be organized meeting a very 
noticeable and marked indifference on the part of a great 
many of the inhabitants of the city, but he was able finally to 
gather 200 men, the majority of them Indians, and started 
with that force for Santa Cruz to chastise the rebels. Near 
the mesa of Santa Cruz he met the rebel army with which he 
attempted to enter into negotiations demanding the reason 
of their discontent, but the rebels answered him with a dis- 
charge of their arms to which he was not able to respond 
instantly because of the confusion that ensued among his 
men from so unexpected and cowardly a blow, causing a 
great number of his men and Indians to go over to the rebels. 
The assault became general upon the governor and the 
handful of citizens who remained loyal to the government. 
They answered the fire with a piece of artillery but without 
making any impression on the lines of the rebels who then 
charged upon the governor and his forces killing 7 men and 
capturing all the wounded which were many. 

The governor, with 23 individuals, escaped to Santa Pe in 



876 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

honorable retreat, from which city he left the same night 
with some of his employees only to be assassinated the next 
day in the most vile and cowardly manner. This occurrence 
took place on the 8th of August, in the night. The next day, 
the 9th, the "Canton," or the revolutionary forces, arrived at 
the capital, taking, immediately, possession of the govern- 
ment. On the same day Governor Perez was assassinated at 
about a mile west of the town, together with some others of 
his employees whose names are mentioned in the sequel. 
We shall now leave the author of the document, from which 
we drew this account, who was an ocular witness at the time, 
to relate in his own words the horrifying scene which capped 
this bloody episode. The said author follows: 

Death of Governor Perez and Other Officials. 

"The Lord Governor travelled down the river until he met 
a force of militia men commanded by D. A Antonito Chavez, 
who denied him the protection he demanded, whereupon 
returning from thence to Santa Fe, he was killed by the 
Indians in the suburbs of the city and his head taken to the 
encampment, was exposed to thescornof the unnatural crim- 
inals; Don Ramon Abreu, Don Mariano Abreu, Don J. M. 
Alarid, who had surrendered as prisoners, were led to the 
encampment, but as soon as the savage and sanguinary Can- 
ton heard of it, fearing that some circumstance might pre- 
serve their lives, gave immediate orders for the instant kill- 
ing of them all. Don Santiago Abreu, and his secretary, 
Saens, were killed the next day at Santo Domingo. The 
indolence and pusilanimity of the authorities at Santa P^ 
was such that, by an order of a detachment of the Canton 
they searched for Lieutenant Colonel Don Manuel Aponte, 
who was hiding in a private house badly wounded, and they 
delivered him up, though they knew well that it was for the 
purpose of killing him, which they did. The people and 
particularly the disarmed soldiers who witnessed this deliv- 
ery, abashed already by the situation in which they had been 
placed, could scarcely dissemble the indignation which the 
act produced in them, knowing, as they did, that no effort 
was m ide to elude the delivery or save the honor of the city. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 377 

Election of Jose Gonzales as Governor. 

On the 10th, after the election for governor was had which 
fell upon Jos4 Gonzales, the rebel governor entered Santa 
Fe, and his first act was to divide up among those he thought 
well-deserving, of his faction, whatever was thought to 
belong to the parties whom they had just murdered; they 
received jewels as creditors to the dead governor, when it 
was a matter of public notoriety that the recipients never 
had had any account or transactions with the dead governor. 
One of the rebels who had distinguished himself by outrag- 
ing the head of Mr. Perez, at the encampment had the brutal 
insolence to don the dollman which Mr. Perez had on when 
they killed him, trying to make himself conspicuous in show- 
ing the hole of the bullet which had killed him and cracking 
stmgs away at those whom he thought had been his friends 
<Mr. Perez's)." 

It may be v^^ell imagined, but it cannot be described into 
what a sombre aspect the city was cast by the savagery 
displayed by those human beasts who at such moments were 
turned into incarnate demons. The Canton and its new 
governor, not content with having satiated their criminal 
ambition by the shedding of innocent blood, proposed to 
continue their campaign of murder and theft in that part of 
the territory which they called theRio Abajo(LowerCountry). 
The said Canton and their governor issued, therefore, an 
€dict whereby they made their determination clear of con- 
tinuing to kill and steal from those who would not submit to 
the obedience of the seditious. That edict had two results; one 
in which it was decided upon a meeting of patriots at Tome 
to organize with the view to restore order and punish the 
insurgents and their factions constituting the opposite 
party, for the government of the seditious had been divided in 
two factions, one of them favoring the views of the governor 
which, although criminal, were not wanting in tendencies to- 
wards the establishment and restoration of good order. 

The Rebellious Government is Divided — Partition of the Spoils. 
Let us now hear the original narrator as he gives us in 
<letailed words the picture of what is meant by the heading 
which precedes this paragraph: 



378 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

"Santa Pe and most of New Mexico were since that day 
in confusion and dread without any other law than the will of 
the new governor and that of the Canton, which, in spite 
of having established, what they called, a "government," 
contrary to the will of the people, would not dissolve, 
but continued taking revolutionary measures, sometimes 
even contrary to those of Gonzales, persecuting and 
threatening with death those who had opposed the rebellion, 
and those' who, they thought, did not approve their views. 
They had the jail at Canada full of innocent persons, and 
still they summoned to their tribunal an unlimited number 
of individuals upon whom they wished to vent their hatred. 
On August 27th, Gonzales, or rather his faction, made a for- 
mal partition of all the property it could gather from the 
houses of their victims, inflicting thus a great damage to 
their families and creditors. Public spirit was again assert- 
ing itself in haste, until on the 7th of September, the citizens 
animated by the same sentiments that prompted the soldiers, 
demanded arms and offered their service, even without pay, 
in order to prevent, as they expressed it, another insult 
similar to the one proffered them by the Canton in the killing 
of Lieutenant Colonel Aponte, and from that day on they 
drilled every morning and evening. A few days later the 
news reached Santa Pe of the "Pronunciamiento" at Tom6 
which was due to the patriotism and talent actively displayed 
by the gentlemen who signed it."' 

True Patriotism Burns in the Hearts of a few Patriots — Counter 
Pronunciamiento of Tome — Organization of a Government Based 
on the Exigency — Don Manuel Armijo Proclaimed Hero of the 
Occasion — Patriotic Proclamation. 

Patriotic citizens meet at Tome. The Prefect at Albur- 
querque was proclaimed the only lawful civil authority, and 
Don Manuel Armijo was appointed and designated com- 
mander of the liberating forces, and to the citizen, Don 
Mariano Chdvez, was assigned the post of second in the 
command. The "shout"' covered its initiators with glory; 
they were real patriots. We give their words in the sequel: 

^^Pronouncement at Tome onthe Sthday oj Sej^teiriber 1837 by 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. did- 

the citizens — lovers oj their country in favor oj the Constitution 
and laws; and they are those hereto subscribed:'^ 

In the town of Tome on the Sth day in the year 1837, the 
neighbors of said point, and those of Santa Maria of Belen, 
being assembled, with their respective alcaldes, the parish 
priest of Tome, the lieutenant of the active militia, the 
honored citizen Don Manuel Armijo, from the jurisdiction of 
Alburquerque, fearing the disorders resulting from the anar- 
chy, in which the Territory of New Mexico was plunged, by 
the deaths inflicted on the persons of the governor and other 
public officials, and being aware of the iniquitous measures 
which the so-called "Canton of la Canada" is taking for the 
destruction of the peace, harmony and good order of the 
citizens, and we being desirous to submit ourselves to the 
laws, and to keep within bounds the insults with which at 
every step we are threatened with as well as protecting our 
properties, and to make the supreme government know the 
good disposition and obedience which the District of Albur- 
querque professes it, they have agreed on the following 
articles: 

1. Until the supreme government determines to execute 
what it may see fit in this Territory, no other authority is 
recognized but that of the Prefect of the District of Albur- 
querque, the only legal one remaining. 

2. No one shall be attacked in his property, or rights. 

3. An armed forced will be placed under the command of 
the citizen Manuel Armijo, whom we have generally pro- 
claimed as commandant, and as his second, the citizen Mariano 
Chdvez, neighbor of Los Padillas, and his secretary, the 
citizen Vicente Sanchez Vergara. 

4. If, after all the forces are assembled, it is desired by 
the commanding officer to appoint another his will shall 
be obeyed in everything the same as it now is being done. 

5. It being fit that the pueblos remain tranquil and not 
meddle in the difficulties of the Mexican citizens, they will be 
informed, that the war not being against them nor directed 
against any of them, not to take part in favor of either party, 
and that, until the supreme government appoints a governor, 
they must govern themselves, without obeying any authority 
which may not flow from themselves. 



580 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

6. That the preceeding article may have effect, it has been 
made known to three native Indians, that were present from 
the pueblo of Isleta, all the just causes that exist, and which 
they must manifest to their comrades. 

7. This pronouncement does not recognize the authority 
which the appointed Canton placed. 

8. The liberating forces being once assembled, the com- 
mander shall take the measures which to him may seem 
convenient for the necessary expenses which may incurred, 
and if he should seize any private property, it will be reinteg- 
rated, a thing that will be done religiously. 

9. An extraordinary envoy shall be at once sent for the 
purpose of giving notice to the General Commandant at 
Chihuahua, and to the supreme government. 

10. Anything that may have been contributed by the 
natives in the shape of pension for the commissioners that 
had been appointed in Santa Fe shall be returned to them. 

"In witness w^iereof we have signed this on said day. 
"Tom6, September 8, 1837. 

"Manuel Armijo. (Seal). 

"Jose Salazar. (Seal). 

"Pablo Salazar. (Seal) 

"J. Franco Montoya. (Seal). 

"Miguel Olona. (Seal). 

"Manuel Madariaga."' (Seal). 

The Rescuing Army is Organized — The Gommancling General of New 

Mexico, General Don Jose Gaballero Appeals to the Patriotism of 

the Gitizens Who Remained Faithful to the Government Urging 

the Organization of Troops to Smother the Rebellion. Here Are His 

" Words. 

"Proclamation." 

"The most disastrous revolution whereby the furor of an 
inhuman and unbridled mob covered our country with mourn- 
ing on the unfortunate days of the 8th and 9th of August last 
past, scattered dread and confusion among the inhabitants, 
who, accustomed to be succored, delivered themselves up to 
suffering and low condescension which, under those circum- 
stances, was the only means of calming the effervescence and 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 381 

misfortune. All the laws which constitute the Mexican 
nation, to which we belong, were disregarded, and in their 
stead extravagant errors and monstrosities were adopted, 
which took from New Mexico its political existence placing it 
inamiserablestateof barbarism, destruction and annihilation. 
Without combination, they seem to have acted by common 
accord, sensible men feigning adhesion toit so as to encourage 
in this wise the stimulus to, or nourishment of, the work of 
destruction, and reaching the belief that their measures 
would be salutary, when after summoning an assemblage 
some sort of heed was given to reason by agreeing to report 
to the supreme government, protesting their obedience, 
through two commissioners appointed to that effect. But, 
unfortunately, the chieftains of the insurrection, swollen with 
triumph, continued figuring in the scene, and without any 
respect to the government which they themselves erected, 
constantly concocted new machinations which they have put 
into practice in an equally alarming manner; and, as it is 
known from good sources, they are advancing to put into 
execution the plunder of this Capital and the Rio Abajo. 
Wretches! Their savage ignorance precipitates them from 
abyss into abyss in search of the punishment which divine 
justice cannot forgive, but will prepare for them. 

"Such pretensions are not, certainly, the ones which 
engage my consideration, but the consequences that must 
flow from the state of disorder in which we are found. The 
scourge of our soil, theNavajoe, being aware of the deplorable 
situation we are placed in, will, by combining with the fr* 11- 
tier pueblos, wage against us the most disastrous war, 
bringing it to the very bosom of our families, and, while this 
is happening, we shall bear as our badge, intestine confu- 
sion, theft and every sort of dpmoralization. 

"My fellow patriots, it is yet tim.etoputup a dyke to so 
many evils. This is the precious moment that presents 
itself to us. Let us return to our self possession and 
re-establish order at any cost. The veteran company of this 
Capital has voluntarily reunited in arms, and, from the first 
of its officials to the last of its soldiers, have sworn to main- 
tain the tranquility and to die in the defense of the laws. 
The whole neighborhood breathes enthusiasm and decision 



382 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

in a cause so sacred, and nothing else is there to wish but 
the co-operation with the sane and sensible section of the 
people of Rio Abajo; for so far as regards the people of Rio 
Arriba, (we cannot count with them now) the truth is that 
they are in a state of revolution, and we would do them a 
great injury by believing that a fourth part of them are not 
in favor of disorder. 

"In virtue, then, of my powers as commandant, I have 
decided to assemble a force of 600 men in this city as quickly 
as possible, and to that purpose I forewarn you, that, with- 
out loss of time, and associated with the representative citi- 
zens of your jurisdictions to make, respectively, a choice of 
the men best equipped and most interested in the cause of 
order, effecting the reunion at Bernalillo, from whence you 
will be led under the command of the man whom it may be 
your pleasure to select as commander-in-chief. 

•'This is, gentlemen, the recourse to which we can appeal, 
and the one which will save our country from the horrors in 
which it is plunged, and, by not doing it, as I demand it, 
you will be responsible before God, and before a government 
which will know how to vindicate the sacred rights of the 
nation. 

"God, etc., Santa Fe, September 9, lb37. 

"Messrs. Alcaldes of Rio Abajo. 

"By disposition of the Commandant. 

J. C' 

Armijo Assumes the Command of the Forces — The Insurgents Sur- 
render—Imprisonment of the Chieftains — End of the Revolution. 

When General Armijo had, with the assent of the Military 
■Commandant, General Caballero, assumed the absolute com- 
mand of the veteran and volunteer forces, he at once com- 
menced a vigorous and energetic campaign against the re- 
bels; obtained the submission of them all without any effusion 
of blood, and also the capture and imprisonment of the head- 
chiefs and investigators of the revolution who were Desiderio 
Montoya, Antonio Aban y Montoya, Jos^ Esquivel and Juan 
Vigil. The said revolutionary chiefs were conducted to 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. ,383 

Santa Fe, and detained in prison incomunicados. Let us 
now hear Armijo narrate his campaign and its brilliant re- 
sults, Armijo speaks: 

"Circular." 

"San Ildefonzo, Canada, Santa Clara, San Juan, Abiquiii, 
Ojo Caliente, Taos, Trampas, Santa Pe. Political and Military- 
Government of New Mexico. 

"On commencing to exercise the powers of superior poli- 
tical and military chief of this Territory, in which necessity, 
and not law has placed me, I feel obliged, not only to give an 
account to the supreme government of the nation of the 
circumstances that have so required it, but I must also make 
it manifest, officially, to my subordinates, notwithstanding 
that they know it well on account of the notorious publicity 
of everything that has occurred in consequence of the revo- 
lution. 

"In the pronouncement at Tome I was appointed com- 
mander of the rescuing force with which I started for Ber- 
nalillo, the point designated as headquarters of the army, 
where in the presence of the Prefect, Don Antonio Sandoval, 
the offices of the active and rural militia, the Alcalde and 
other representative persons, they agreed to confer, and did 
actually confer, on me the post of colonel, first chief of the 
said rescuing army. 

"Having arrived at this Capital, I was recognized as such 
colonel, and superior chief of arms by the General Command- 
ant and the rest of the officers of the companies of permanent 
veterans who submitted to my orders as they made it appear 
by their signatures by means of a formal document which 
was executed for the purpose. 

"With this mark of obedience my ambition consisted only 
in destroying the insurrection of La Canada assuring thus 
the public tranquility, and respect for the laws that govern 
us. In order to completely obtain this result, it was neces- 
sary not to lay down our arms until the resolve of the 
supreme government should be learned. In consequence of 
the treaties held in this city on the 21st instant, and with 
the above marshaled forces, of which I enclose you a copy. 



384 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

the result was that I was appointed superior and chief, not 
only in military, but also in political affairs, which trust I 
could not refuse without failing in the duty of a citizen highly 
interested in the happiness of his country. 

"In this manner the terrible scene of confusion ended, 
which, for a second time, had presented itself to unfortunate 
New Mexico; the just cause of order and the laws rapidly 
triumphing, in the defense of which I grasped my sword^ 
without the effusion of a drop of Mexican blood. 

"Tranquility being restored in all its extent, individual 
security rests under the guaranty of the government and of 
the laws; and the head chiefs of the revolution will suffer the 
punishment which those laws in justice shall impose upon 
them. 

"Whilst, however, the determination of the supreme gov- 
ernment is obtained, all my endeavors and toils shall be to 
maintain the quiet, cause the laws to be observed, the 
obedience to the constituted authorities, and that precise, 
indispensable order which is the life of every society. If in 
order to attain these ends, it becomes necessary for me to 
make some examples of severity, I shall, without doubt, 
dictate them, although in sorrow, in due deference to the 
duty which behooves me, and I do not demand of my fellow 
citizens any other co-operation than that of their obedience. 

"And in virtue of such powers, and that it may reach the 
knowledge of all the inhabitants of the territory under my 
command, I forewarn you to make it known by means of the 
publication of this circular, getting a copy of it and acknow- 
ledging therein the receipt thereof with the date of the hour 
in which it reaches and leaves every place. 

"God and Liberty. Santa Pe, Sept. 26, 18H7. 

"Manuel Armijo." (Seal). 

A Seditious individual Named Antonio Vigil Remains in Santa Cruz — 
Me Issues a Proclamation of Insurrection. 

Soon after Armijo's return to Santa Fe with the said revo- 
lutionary chiefs, the flame of insurrection was again kindled 
at Santa Cruz. On this occasion it was initiated by a certain 
Antonio Vigil, who, judging his ability by the language of his 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 385 

writing, was a consummate ignoramus. Vigil published his 
string of assinities at Santa Cruz at the beginning of January, 
1838, inciting those who desired to follow him to use violence 
in order to set at liberty the said chiefs, Montoyas, Vigil and 
Esquivel. We give below that literary abortion. Here you 
have it, reader, word for word: 



''G 



ircuiar. 



"San Francisco del Rancho de Taos, Rio Chiquito, Pueblo 
de Taos, Arroyo Seco, Plaza de San Antonio Desmontes y 
Ranchitos. 

"In this reunion of the Villa of Santa Cruz de la Canada of 
the pueblos in love with God and their country commandant, 
defenders of the faith of Jesus Christ, he has been pleased 
to give notice to you my esteemed fellow citizens that we make 
a claim to that which and all those who are defenders of this 
sacred standard may put himself in precise march informing 
you how a departmental law has been published in the dis- 
tricts and pueblos of the peaceful territory of New Mexico 
from the finalized year of the year 1837, which deaths were 
given to the executors of said laws who unsheathing their 
sword in defense of said law, which assailing the punishment 
high Omnipotence the custodian staff of the laws fell upon 
Mr. Don Jose Gonzales, who was appraised by the unisonous 
vote of the bosom of this peaceful territory Mr. Don Armijo 
has uprisen in appraisement of the custodian staff, not by the 
unisonous of the popular but by one sole violence and power 
placing in the enclosure of prisons the defenders of the sav- 
ing plan of this Villa who were the citizens, Desiderio Mon- 
toya, Antonio Aban y Montoya. Jose Esquivel and Juan Vigil, 
who are being madedeservers of the causes which against this 
unhappy and erring territory which they came executing in 
which therefore we beg of our Sovereign God to remember 
the past dream who are here at times asleep; let us remember 
his holy commandments, and I command my fellow citizens 
that the most necessary is that where this circular be pub- 
lished the shout should be raised of 'long live God, and the 
country, and the faith of Jesus Christ and Antonio Vigil,' and 
in the name of this reunion." 



386 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Armijo is Declared Political Chief- -He Pronounces Sentence of Death 
Against the Culprits — The Second Commandant Hesitates — The 
Sentence Is Pronounced. 

On the 17th of October (1837) Armijo went to Rio Abajo in 
attendance to domestic affairs, having first assumed the 
charge of political chief (besides that of commandant-in-chief 
of the military jurisdiction which he already was exercising, 
as we have seen) to which he was promoted by acclamation 
of all the citizens loyal to the government, in acknowledge- 
ment of his elevated patriotism. Before leaving, however, 
he ordered that the revolutionary chieftains, Desiderio Mon- 
toya, Antonio Aban Montoya, Jose Esquivel and Juan Vigil, 
should be shot. The step or determination taken by Armijo, 
although it did not exactly adjust itself to what was pre- 
scribed by law — the trial and sentence of the guilty parties 
before they had been adjudged guilty — seemed to require 
prompt, energetic and decisive action considering the steps 
of Antonio Vigil in the direction of launching another revolu- 
tion. It was necessary to give a bloody example. In 
cases of this kind the Roman aphorism, "Necessity knows 
no law,"' is applicable. But the official, who in Armijo's 
absence commanded the troop, General Don Jos6 Caballero, 
hesitated a long while before executing the order of his 
superior; and, in order to be the more certain as to whether 
or not the order of Armijo should be obeyed, he summoned 
a council of war which gave its verdict in favor of the execu- 
tion of the culprits. Here is the opinion: 

"In the city of Santa F6, Capital of the Territory of New 
Mexico, on the 21st day of October, 1837, the citizen Jose 
Caballer6, general commandant of the Territory, and charged 
with the command of the arms of this garrison, in the 
absence of the commanding general, Don Manuel Armijo, 
said: That in virtue of the official contests that have arisen 
from the 17th of the present month, in which the chief officer 
of this city absented himself in virtue of the communications 
which he received from the Alcalde of the Villa of la Canada, 
whose report is confirmed by the official letter received last 
night, as well as by the official order, which was also 
received at five o'clock in the morning, from the commanding 
general, from the reading of which I have come to entertain 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 387 

some doubts, regarding the obligations to which my duty 
so strictly confines me as to the aforesaid order of the gen- 
eral, and in view of the critical circumstances of the hour, I 
have decided, in accordance with the faculties conferred 
upon me by the ordnance, to form a general junta of the 
officers that may be present to the end that said junta be 
informed of all that has happened in this matter, that said 
junta may resolve opportunely, and as it may seem more 
convenient to it, the step that should be taken with respect 
to the compliance of the order of the general, so far as it 
regards the decapitation of the culprits of which the afore- 
said order speaks. Gathered together in this locahty, the 
offi(;ers who hereto subscribe their names, they being the 
only officers at the present in this garrison, the matter was 
taken up, the session having first been opened, all the 
statutes and orders that bear upon the question were very 
scrupulously read, and the junta, being thoroughly conver- 
sant with the facts unanimously resolved: That the superior 
order which the said commander general has issued, be 
obeyed; but it is necessary, in order to execute it, that this 
town be strengthened by all the force necessary to repel any 
attempt that may be made, to which end we asked that this 
decision be communicated to the commanding general, to 
whom it is referred by us, the said officers; that his Excel- 
lency may decide upon what is more conformable and in 
accord with his views in the premises, as well in what it 
refers in order to repel any attack from the insurrectos; and 
that from the moment in which advices are received to the 
effect that the rebels propose to attack this town with what- 
ever pretext, they, the prisoners may at once be decapitated 
in the cells where they now are, because of these very 
occurrences and in compliance with the said superior order. 
This was agreed to by the junta and they signed it, directing 
at the same time, that this decision be communicated speedily 
by courier to the commanding general." 

"Jose Candelario" (Seal). "Esqqipula Caballero" (Seal). 
*'JosE Silva" (Seal). "Franco Martinez" (Seal). 

"Manuel D. Pino"' (Seal). "Manuel Ramirez" (Seal). 

''Jose Hernandez" (Seal). "Rafael Tapia" (Seal). 

"Ramon Baca" (Seal). "Teodsio Quintana" (Seal). 



388 ILLUSTKATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Beheading of Juan Jose Esquivel, Juan Vigil, Desiderio Montoya and 
Antonio A. Montoya, the Culprits — Tragical End of the Ill-Conceived 
Pronouncement- 

Before the decision of the council of war was communicated 
to him, Armijo returned to Santa F^, and at once engaged, 
without loss of time, in giving the culprits an opportunity 
to settle their worldly affairs and prepare to be beheaded in 
expiation of the unheard of, cowardly and diabohcal crime 
which in consequence of their misunderstood patriotism the 
assassins had committed, when on the 8th, and 9th, of 
August (1837), they had stained their hands with the innocent 
blood of Governor P^rez and the others martyr-victims of 
their infernal malice. On the 24th of January they were 
decapitated and their decapitation was officially announced 
by General Armijo in the following manner: 

Government of the Department of New Mexico. 

"Today at nine o'clock in the morning the traitors of lesse- 
nation, Juan Jose Esquivel, Juan Vigil, Desiderio Montoya, 
and Antonio Aban Montoya were beheaded as authors of 
the horrid conspiracy of the Villa de la Canada, whereby an 
attempt was scandalously made against the national unity 
and against the sovereignity of the laws which constitute 
its government, and the persons who were representing it 
in the first offices of this department whom they murdered 
with unexampled impiety. 

"These unfortunate instruments of such horrid crimes 
were being tried according to the formalities and steps pre- 
scribed by law; but public tranquility threatened by a new 
uprising of the chieftain Antonio Vigil, who has called 
together in a tumultuous manner the unhappy people of 
la Canada andChimay6in support of the revolution, proffered 
the government the greatest insults, menacing to take by 
force the aforesaid culprits, hastened their execution and the 
well-merited punishment of their atrocious crime. 

"The just Heaven claimed for this execution and the 
blame itself brought its consequent effects. The goverment 
proposes to fulfil fully its duties, and the energy of its 
measures, without any particular regard, or any considera- 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 389 

tions of friendship and interest; such will be the fixed rule of 
its conduct. May God grant that this spectacle, so sad for 
peaceful New Mexico, be the last to present itself to its 
natural humaneness and good sense. I lay this before your 
knowledge that you may publish it within what comprises 
your command. 

"God and Liberty, Santa Fe, January 24th, 1838, 

"Manuel Armijo," (seal) 

Santa Fe, January 29th, 1838. 
"The forgoing proclamation has been published in this 
city, and I remit it to you for the purpose that you may 
publish it in that Real (town) without any loss of time, and 
send it back to me in order to file it. 

Ortiz y Delgado (seal) 
( "Lord Justice of the Peace of El Real del Oro" 
( "Lord First Alcalde of Santa Fe." 

With the execution of the culprits Armijo suppressed the 
revolution, restored peace, order, and good government 
covering himself with well deserved glory. Immediately 
after the re-establishment of the government, the American 
merchants assembled at Santa Fe and made through the 
American Consul the following claim on the Mexican 
Government. 

Claims of the American Merchants. September, 1837. 

Memorial sent by the American merchants of Santa Fe, to 
the American Legation in Mexico immediately after the 
suppression of the uprising called "The Chimayo Revolu- 
tion," giving a complete history of the death of Governor 
Perez and of other officials, and of the organization of the new 
government, and also presenting claims against the Mexican 
government for damages occasioned by the revolutionists, 
signed by Alvarez & Co., S. G. & H., P. W. Thompson, L. L. 
Waldo, Isidoro Robidoux, and others. 

"To the Hon. Powhattan Ellis, Minister Plenipotentiary and 
Envoy Extraordinary of the United States of America to the 
Republic of Mexico: The undersigned, citizens of the United 
States, and merchants of the City of Santa F6, Capital of the 



390 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Department of New Mexico, respectfully represent to Your 
Excellency: 

"That in the later part of the month of July and the first of 
August, past, a little after the arrival of the caravan from the 
State of Missouri, a hostile encampment of Mexican citizens 
opposed to the constitution in force of the republic was 
formed in a town named Santa Cruz de la Canada about 
twenty miles north of this place, publishing a manifesto to the 
people denouncing the departmental order of the government 
and the authorities that acted by and under the new consti- 
tution, and assembling immediately a force of no less than 
2,000 armed men; that on the 7th of August, the Governor of 
the Department, Don Albino Perez, the Justice of the District 
Court, Don Santiago Abreu, the Prefect, Don Ramon Abreu, 
the Secretary of the Department, Don Juan Maria Alarid, with 
an armed force of about 200 men marchedfrom thisplace to ap- 
pease the opposed party. But on the 8th, before they reached 
the place of their destination, they were attacked and com- 
pletely routed by theinsurgents leavingseven of their number 
dead on the spot, besides several wounded, and others who 
fell prisoners. The victorious party considering that, after 
their defeat, the officers of the department would try to flee to 
Mexico, immediately, after the action, sent out couriers to 
the south, and particularly to the pueblo Indians, who are 
all Mexican citizens, to the end that they should arrest the 
public authorities and all who might accompany them, and to 
put them to death immediately, which order was literally 
executed on the 9th and 10th of August, killing said public 
officials together with six subalterns and servants found with 
them. 

"On the mentioned day, the revolutionary party at last 
entered the capital and elected Jose Gonzales governor of the 
Territory, renouncing the title of department. He took imme- 
diate possession of the State House and of the respective 
offices, and proceeded to discharge the duties of military and 
civil chief of the province. 

"On the 27th day of xVugustlast past, the governor with all 
the executive officers, divided and apportioned among the 
chief men of the conquerors all the effects, holdings and other 
property of the dead governor, together with that of some of 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 391 

the others, the balance of the property of the other author- 
ities who were killed having been appropriated by the perpe- 
trators of the deed. On the said 27th day of August after the 
partition mentioned, there was a general assembly of all the 
alcaldes, and principal men of their respective jurisdictions, 
summoned to the Capital by the previous order of the existing 
executive, which general assembly, after opening its session, 
and proceeding with business, solemnly approved and sanc- 
tioned all the acts of the victorious party, as well as the deed 
of having put to death the authorities of the Mexican govern- 
ment; the election of governor, and the division of the prop- 
erty of the dead persons among the principals of the party 
which now had the power; leaving in this manner the credit- 
ors of the dead persons without the least prospect of recover- 
ing the debts due them by said dead persons, except through 
the equity and justice of the general government of the 
Republic of Mexico. 

"We further represent that the American merchants of 
this place, during their commerce, have been in the habit of 
giving credit to the public functionaries upon the security 
that their accounts would be regularly and honorably paid in 
the adjustment of fees in the Custom House, and part of our 
debits were created by means of advances made to the prin- 
cipal ofiicers for the under officers and soldiers with whom 
we did not care to have direct dealing, under the full faith 
and confidence that they should have been, or at least the 
principal portion, credited to our accounts in the Custom 
House; but on the contrary the present government of the 
province has appropriated to itself all the public funds and 
the property of the dead officers for its use and benefit, 
destroying as we have said, all hope of our being remuner- 
ated by any other means than through the influence of your 
Excellency with the authorities of Mexico. 

"The salaries of the dead gentlemen were sufficiently res- 
pectable, to wit: Those of the Governor and Judge were 
three thousand dollars a year, and those of the other two, 
two thousand dollars yearl.y for each; these salaries, aside 
from what was advanced to them for the soldiers and under- 
officers, would have been amply sufficient to have squared 
our respective claim.s, our credits would have been settled 



392 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

through the Custum House during the actual season, had it 
not been for the unexpected, and, for us, wonderful revolu- 
tion that has taken place. 

"We further represent that our credits to the officials, who 
have been sacrified on account of their support to the central 
system of government, were not, in all respects, voluntary. 
The funds of the Custom-house are generally exhausted 
four months after the arrival of the caravan, and the author- 
ities and soldiers were compelled to be sustained by the 
American merchants, and, upon the faith of the arrival of 
the next caravan, have never been refused, and it would 
never have been very prudent to have refused these advances 
upon the assurance that our accounts would have been very 
honorably paid through the official in the Custom-house in 
the subsequent season. 

''The undersigned base this their memorial upon the follow- 
ing reasons which they hope and believe to be sufficiently 
ample: 

1. Our credits were made to the public officials of the 
Mexican Republic, enjoying excellent salaries, as well as 
upon the faith of their salaries as also for large sums 
advanced by the said authorities to the under officers and 
soldiers employed for the defense of the department, under 
the full faith and assurance that the said government through 
its Custom-house would cause them to be satisfactorily 
paid and discounted in the business of fees which we are 
annually obliged to pay upon our goods. But owing to the 
sacrifice of said officials and to the confiscation of their 
property, not by a crowd, but by the measure duly approved 
and sanctioned by a general assembly of the people, we are 
bound to look upon it under the aspect of a deliberate act 
of the Mexican people, and, therefore, the government 
should be responsible to us for this damage so suffered by 
the undersigned. 

2. That upon the faith of the treaty of peace and friend- 
ship between the two Republics, we have established our- 
selves in this place under the security that we must be 
protected in our persons and in our pi-operty; and that, in 
the case of the breaking out of a revolution against the tenor 
of the Mexican Constitution, that we should not be obliged 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 393 

to be the losers, and believing that this government, through 
the medium of our own, would at any time be made respon- 
sible for any loss or damages suffered on account of the acts 
of the Mexican people towards the citizens of a peaceful 
-and friendly power. 

Adjoining this memorial we send a copy of the manifesto 
■distributed in the country by the revolutionists, marked "A." 
A statement of our accounts with the deceased persons, 
marked "B." 

The respective accounts against the deceased persons in 
<letail, marked, "C,"" which we agree to confirm to the entire 
satisfaction of the Mexican government. 

Your very obedient and very honorable servants. 

Alvarez & Co. 
S. G. & H. 
P. M. Thompson, 
L L. Waldo, 

ISIDORO ROBIDOUX, 

& others. 
Santa Fe, 7th, of Sept., 1837." 



CHAPTER V. 



Armijo Reports to the Government — Is Confirmed in the office — Is 
Temporarily Suspended — Lejanza and Chavez act in the Interim — 
The System of Government is Changed- Custom Houses are 
Established at Taos — Discovery of the old "placer and Other 
Minerals — Expansion of the Mercantile Trade — American Con- 
sulate and Commercial Agency — Texan Invasion — McLeod Sur- 
renders With all His Force — Other Texan Expeditions. 



1837—1843- 



When Armijo had pacified the province he gave to Mexica 
a report of the revolution and its result as well as the reasons 
that constrained the loyal citizens to organize a provisional 
government, placing him at the head of the army in order 
to suppress the insurrection and to assume the charge of the 
government while the supreme government determined 
otherwise. The government at Mexico approved everything 
done by Armijo and the other patriots who helped him to 
re-establish order, rewarding his services and patriotism by 
the contirmation, or, to express it better, by ratifying the 
choice the citizens of New Mexico had made in electing him 
as their governor and political chief. In this manner, Armijo 
came to figure again as governorfor the last eight years cf the 
history of New Mexico under the fiag of Mexico, except dur- 
ing the two intervals in which Armijo was temporarily sus- 
pended by the inspector general, 1844 to 1845, acting during 
those two dates as governors ad interim, Don Mariano Marti- 
nez, de Le Janza, in 1844, and Don Jos^ Chavez in 1845, 
Armijo following towards the middle part of 1845, 

During the first years of the second administration of 
Armijo, or between 1837 and until the middle of 1841, all 
Armijo's endeavors, those of the departmental assembly, and 
those of the prominent men of the territory were directed 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 39& 

towards the development of the industries which had become 
paralyzed on account of the rebellion and the other causes we 
have already enumerated. In Taos a custom house was 
established in 1847. In 1839 another change of government 
was effected declaring New Mexico as "commandancy"" 
instead of department. In that same year many important 
discoveries were made in the mineral branch near the "Real 
of Dolores," in Santa Fe County, of which we have already 
spoken, giving the new discovery the name of "Placer 
Nuevo;" and in the points of Abiquiu, Taos and Sangre de 
Cristo, discoveries of equal importance were also made, the 
principal discoverer being (of the new as well as of the old 
"Real de Dolores"), Don Ignacio Cano, from Spain, maternal 
grandfather of the author of this work; the Mexican govern- 
ment having given him and to a certain Ortiz the grant which 
up to this date is known as the "Ortiz" grant in the County 
of Santa Fe. 

Mercantile trade also received a new and stronger impulse. 
(In the chapter dedicated to the development of the indus- 
tries of the territory' this matter is more amply treated.) 
The number of North American strangers increased more 
and more every day, for, in addition to those we have already 
mentioned, Messrs. Robidoux, Beaubien, St. Vrain, Charles 
Bent and others, by that date, there had arrived at Taos, Col. 
Kit Carson, who became afterwards one of the most promi- 
nent men in the Territory, Mr. Peter Joseph, Branch, 
Ledoux, Lee, Quinn, and James Conklin, Charles Blumner, 
Houghton and many others in Santa Fe, as the reader must 
have noticed in the preceding chapter, and Mr. Waldo and 
others in Mora. 

With the enhancement of said trade, there had been ger- 
minating, however, a very marked antipathy in the Mexicans 
on account of the war Texas was waging against Mexico. 



* 



American Consulate in New Mexico. 

In the year of 1839, in March, the United States govern- 
ment established a consulate in New Mexico. Don Manuel 

*Orig-inal in my possession— The Author. 



396 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Alvarez was appointed Consul, with headquarters at Santa 
Fe His notification reads thus: 

"Department of State, 

Washington, March 22nd, 1839. 
"Manuel Alvarez, Esq: 

"Appointed United States Consul at Santa Fe, Mexico. 
"Sir: The President having appointed you Consul of the 
United States at Santa Fe, in Mexico, I herewith enclose a 
printed copy of the General Instructions to Consuls, etc., 
and other documents for use of your Consulate, a list of 
which is annexed. 

"Your commission will be delivered to the Minister of the 
United States at Mexico, who will be instructed to apply to 
that government for Exequatur in your favor, and when 
obtained to forward it to you, with your commission. You 
are not authorized to perform any act as Consul until an 
Exequatur has been granted to you, unless the consent so to 
do, has been first obtained from the competent authority in 
Santa Fe. I also enclose herewith a blank consular bond 
which you will execute and return to this department in the 
manner directed in Art. 1st, Chapt. 1st, of the General 
[nstructions. It is highly important that you should make 
yourself well acquainted with the General Instructions to 
Consuls, etc., and fully comply with all the requisitions con- 
tained in them. 

"I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

"John Forsyth."' 
"List of Enclosures.'" 

"General Instructions — Blank Bond — Forms of Returns 
etc.— Statement of Fees — Ink Lines— List of New Mins. and 
Consuls." 

Mr. Alvarez acted as such U. S. Consul in New Mexico 
until March, 1846, at which time the consulate was abolished 
by effect of International Law (Mexico and the United States 
being then at war, although war had not been formerly de- 
clared by either nation. The war was declared by the 
American Government on May 13, 1846, and by Mexico in 
June of the same year). On that date the United States Gov- 
ernment established in Santa Fe a new office. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 397 

Commercial Agency of the U. S. 

As stated above the consulate could not exist while the two 
countries were at war. Yet the American interests in New 
Mexico had grown to such an importance commercially and 
otherwise, that it was thought advisable, in order to better 
protect them, to establish a Commercial Agency. Conse- 
quently on the 18th day of March, 1846, Secretary of State, 
James Buchanan officially notified Mr. Manuel Alvarez of 
the creation of said office and his appointment as "United 
Commercial Agent at Santa Fe in the Mexican Republic."* 

Texan Invasion. 

The effects were now beginning to be felt of the war 
between Mexico and Texas in New Mexico, and as was nat- 
ural, the Mexican citizens, whether right or wrong, could 
not see with pleasing eyes the permanence of the resident 
North Americans in the Territory. All their words and 
actions were strictly watched, for it was believed that all of 
them (extract from the "Resena Hist6rica Sin6ptica de la 
Guerra Mejico Americana"f of the author) clandestinely were 
spies and sympathizers of the Texans. Nevertheless, 
nothing is found in history which shows a reason or basis 
for such suspicions, except, perhaps the observations made 
by Bancroft, who is inclined to believe that those suspicions 
were not lacking in substance, and the assertion of 
Bustamante (note 21 Bancft. "Arizona and New Mexico" 231). 
When it was known in the year 1841, that a Texan army was 
coming to invade and conquer New Mexico great excitement 
prevailed at Santa Pe, among all the strangers, and it is 
possible, had they not been protected with such firmness by 
the Mexican authorities, perhaps the people might have 
used violence against them as will be seen by the correspon- 
dence we give below between the said authorities and 
Alvarez, the American Consul General, at Santa P^. On the 
fourteenth of September of the same year Alvarez com- 
plained to Governor Armijo demanding protection for himself 

*The official communication of Buchanan, alluded to, to Alvarez, 
is in my possession. — The Author. 
tRead's "Res. Hist. Sinop. De la Guerr. Mex. Americana." 



S98 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

and other strangers from the outrages and insults which 
they daily received (as they said) from the Mexicans to 
which complaint, Miranda, Secretary of the Government, 
gave the following answer: * 

Office of the Secretary of the Departmental Government. 

•'Having informed his Excellency, the Governor, with the 
<;ontents of your note of to-day's date, he has decided and 
directed me, to tell you that your Nationals, as well as any 
others that may be here from other friendly nations, will be 
protected and respected, and that they will not be permitted 
to be insulted nor persecuted, that every protection will be 
afforded them in conformity with the treaties; but if it be 
proved that any one of them takes part in protecting the 
enemy, as this government has learned from persons of 
veracity that some of your nation do, such a one shall be 
reputed as an enemy and will at once be proceeded against 
according to law; a thing which I make manifest to you that 
you may see to it, to warn your Nationals of the obligation; they 
have no right to take any part, which will serve to give occasion 
for the disorders, assuring you that this government will 
never molest you, so long as no one gives occasion for it. 
All of which I have the honor to mention to you by order of 
his Excellency reiterating to you the considerations of my 
esteem. — God and Liberty. Santa Pe, September 14th, 1841. 

"Guadalupe Miranda" (seal) 
Sr. Don Manuel Alvarez, 

Consul for the United States of the North " 

It looked as if matters did not go well, notwithstanding 
the protest of those who governed, that they would protect 
strangers; for, when General Armijo, who was then governor 
of New Mexico, was preparing to set out against the Texan 
invading force, he sent to Consul Alvarez, on the 16th of 
September, the following very significant communication 
ordering him and all the other strangers not to go out of 
Santa Fe. The letter of September 16th, follows: 

* NOTE — The autograph letters which passed between Armijo and 
Miranda, as Mexican officials, and Manuel Alvarez, as American 
•Consul, are all in my possession.- -The Author. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO, 399 

"General Commandancy of the Department. 
"As Commanding General of this department, and, in the 
name of the Mexican nation I warn you, as Consul of the 
United States of the North, that neither yourself nor any one 
of the strangers staying and dwelling in this Capital leave 
it under any pretext or motive; that you all must remain in 
the city till my return; and that on my return I shall tell the 
corresponding causes for this measure which I deem indis- 
pensable, and if it be necessary will also do so to the very 
nation that you represent. Acknowledge to me at once the 
receipt of this precept. God and Liberty, Santa Pe, Sep- 
tember 16th, 1841. 

Manuel Armijo (seal)" 

On the other hand, on the same day, (16th of September), 
the strangers, thinking now that, on account of the Texan 
invasion, their lives and interests were in danger, sent to 
Daniel Webster, Secretary of the State, the following commu- 
nication; * 

Santa Fe, N. M., Sept. 16, 1841. 
"Hon. Daniel Webster, Sec'y of State, United States 
of America. 

"Sir: — In a moment of extreme excitement and danger we, 
a few isolated American citizens, together with a few other 
citizens from other nations, feel it to be our duty to inform 
the government of the United States of the circumstances 
which surround and oppress us in these moments. It has 
been learned here that an invading expedition composed of 
325 men from Texas is approaching this Territory; on that 
account, all the inhabitants and all the officials of the govern- 
ment have become so exasperated against all strangers in 
this place that we deem ourselves in danger of our lives and 
destruction of our property, there is danger imminent; and 
we fear that before this reaches Washington we shall have 
been robbed and murdered. 

"The governor marched off today with his troops to repel 
the invaders; immediately after his departure from town one 
of his officers (seeming to us, the one next to him in com- 

* The orig-inal communication is in my oossession. The same was 
not forwarded to Webster — Thf, A.nTHOR. 



400 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

mand and who is also his nephew and confidant) turned 
back and coming up as far as the door of Don Maiiuel 
Alvarez, Consul of the United States in this place, with the 
help of several of his soldiers, and a party of the populace, 
went into the Consul's house and grievously insulted him 
striking him on the face; however, through the intervention 
of the Mexican citizens of better dispositions the disturbance 
was stopped; but before they withdrew, the officers said 
pubhcally on the street, and in the presence of a large multi- 
tude of citizens that after they had routed the Texans, the 
officer would return with his troops and would destroy all of 
us, the strangers. 

"That conduct, together with innumerable insults, injus- 
tices and undue oppressions which we are daily subjected to, 
is evident proof to us of how deep rooted against us is the 
antipathy of this government and its citizens. 

"Had there been any difficulty between that officer and 
our Consul, we might have said that he had attacked him 
through motives of personal vengeance, but as nothing of 
that sort has occurred, we are constrained to believe that it 
was nothing more than the manifestation of the bad will 
the chief authorities, and also a majority of the citizens, 
nurse in their hearts against us strangers, who live here. 

"We, therefore, hope that, with the presentation of these 
circumstances to our government, measures will be adopted 
that will avoid the recurrence of similar injuries to our 
citizens. 

"We are, sir, your obedient servants, John Scolly, Isaac 
N. Brenery, James Conklin, Ch. Kunes, Conls. Thr. Wieck, 
A. F. Stackpleth, Kocio Tedesely, Ch. LeNoir, Alberto Gid- 
dings, Milno King, Charles Blumner, Ruben Gentry, David 
W. Alexander." 

The next day (the 17th) Alvarez again renewed his com- 
plaint, and solicited the government's protection, to which 
Secretary Miranda, on the same date answered what follows: 

"Office of the Secretary of the Departmental Gov'mt. 
"Having informed His Excellency, the Governor, of your 
note of today's date, which I have just received, he has 
directed me to manifest to you that this government, by 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 401 

repeated orders has recommended all the authorities to 
watch, so that order may be preserved, and the properties 
and hves of the strangers found in this department be 
secured, and that all protection necessary for this purpose 
be given them, rendering to them all due consideration 
according to the treaties; and that he will continue to 
redouble his vigilance in order that, now when the enemy is 
approaching, and the spirit of the citizens is restless and 
exalted, they (the strangers) may not lack anything (of the 
good treatment) in which you and all the strangers should 
rest assured; for the desires of His Excellency are in favor 
of tranquility and harmony, and, on this account, you must 
cast away every species of fear, and reassure your Nationals 
that they have all the protection of his as is his duty, to 
which end he has dictated all the proper and necessary 
measures, and is on the look out. 

"As to the disrespect of the Alferez, Don Tomas Martinez 
and the sergeant you mention. His Excellency will be duly 
informed on his return. I repeat to you the considerations 
of my esteem. God and Liberty, Santa Fe, Sept. 17, 1841. 

"Guadalupe Miranda (Seal). 
"Sr. Dn. Manuel Alvarez, United States Consul." 

To the same purpose Miranda again addressed Alvarez on 
the 19th, the following communication: 

"Office of the Sec'y. of the Departmental Gov't. 
"Having informed His Excellency, the Governor, by means 
of your note with today's date, he has instructed me to tell 
you that the authorities are already and had been previously 
advised to observe the treaties, and the recommendations 
for the compliance thereof shall be continued, directing them 
to observe order and good harmony with the strangers that 
may be found in the department, and that they give no occa- 
sion for any other thing, but that they must comply with 
said treaties. I state this to you by order of His Excellency 
for your own knowledge, reiterating to you the considera- 
tions of my esteem. God and Liberty, Santa Fe, Sept. 19th, 
1841. Guadalupe Miranda (Seal). 

Sr. Dn. Manuel Alvarez, Consul for the United States of 
the North." 



402 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Lastly on Sept. 20th, Alvarez complained of the repulsive 
conduct of officer Ramirez towards the strangers, but, as 
Armijo had already marched off to meet theTexans, Miranda 
had to postpone the investigation of the complaints, advising 
Alvarez of this course on the 23rd through the following 
communication. 

"Having informed his Excellency, the Governor, of your 
note of the 2nd inst., and the one you enclose which is 
reserved until the return of his Excellency, the contents 
noted by him, he has caused Don Seratin Ramirez, first 
official of the treasury, to appear, and having charged him 
with what you say, the latter has answered that the only 
thing he has said has been that he had been told that the 
strangers had made joyful demonstrations, not that he saw 
it nor that they burst out in hurrahs; as you are assured of, 
that this is the only thing that has transpired, and in a con- 
fidential conversation at that, and not before the public; and 
I hope that what I have the honor to tell you by superior 
order will serve you and your Nationals as (better) informa- 
tion. Reiterating my considerations of esteem. God and 
Liberty, Santa Fe, Sept. 23, 1841. 

Guadalupe Miranda. (Seal). 

"Sir Consul, Don Manuel Alvarez." 

Armijo s Proclamation. 

Before starting with the army to meet the Texans, Armijo 
issued a proclamation which we give below, said proclama- 
tion being one of the causes which infused so much fear in 
the American residents of the Capital, w'hich fear crystalized 
itself in the correspondence the reader has just read. The 
proclamation follows: 

"The Governor and Commandant General of New Mexico 
to its inhabitants. 

"Fellow Patriots: — The ever accredited mildness that in all 
epochs and circumstances has characterized the benignity of 
the Mexican government, which, as a guide, has ever been 
followed by the one who addresses you, from the time he was 
giventhe honor of governing you, as governor andcommanding 
general of this department, well satisfied of the docility of all 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 403 

and each of its inhabitants, he does not for a moment hesitate 
to address you (to the effect) that if there be one or several 
(among you) who, seduced with or deceived by coaxing words 
have without foresight effected any compromise assuring 
those governing Texas that they will be in their favor in the 
present struggle with Mexico; and, though this may have 
been assured under signature, or in any other manner, way, 
or form; provided that at present, and from today on, they 
accredit their patriotism, adhesion, loyalty and fidelity to our 
legitimate and paternal government of the Mexican republic 
to which we have the honor of belonging; in the name of the 
same, and upon my word of honor, the corresponding pardon 
is solemnly hereof promised without fear of the least damage 
being inflicted on you on account of such a deed, and without 
the least impairment to the nationality and patriotism to 
which you are creditors by a thousand titles as the patrimony 
of loyalty bequeathed to you as a heritage by your an- 
cestors. 

"Yes, my dear fellow citizens and fellow patriots, it is not 
to be feared and much less believed, that, with the danger of 
loosing your religion, your country, and your property, you 
would hesitate for a single moment to place yourselves 
under the shadow of and around your national flag, and 
that, facing all the dangers, and exaggerated perils, we, the 
New Mexicans (despite the plots of those rivals and trai- 
tors, the Texans, and their followers) shall display our 
valor and earn the laurels which shall be displayed on a level 
with and parallel to those of the most warlike nations on 
earth. This I promise you, and with this, your fellow cit- 
izen and chief drinks to your health." 

"Manuel Armijo. (Seal) 
"Santa Fe, N. M., Sept. 18, 1841." 

Invasion by Texans — Their Failure. 

The reader will readily see how, in the year 1841, the situa- 
tion of the strangers was quite strained. The Texan expedi- 
tion which invaded New Mexico in 1841, left Texas, from 
Austin, on the 18th of June, with General McLeod in com- 
mand and about 320 men as troops, and some who came as 
merchants. The ostensible object of the expedition was. 



404 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

according to the historian who accompanied it, to establish 
commercial relations with New Mexico, and by way of in- 
ducement, they came so well prepared that they were bring- 
ing along a piece of artillery, as if to impose terror upon the 
New Mexicans, whom they thought quite disgusted with 
the mother country, in case they should make any oppo- 
sition. 

The truth, however, was that, as their congress had 
already approved a lawapprop. latingall the territory east of 
the Rio Grande, they came with the disposition of inducing 
the inhabitants of New Mexico to separate from Mexico and 
unite with Texas, they claiming New Mexico as a part of 
Texas. After suffering unaccountable hardships, and losing 
four or five of their number, who were killed by the Indians, 
they reached New Mexico; but, as the Mexican government 
at Santa Fe already knew of the premeditated expedition, as 
said above, Armijo set out with troops to meet them, having 
first sent a portion of his army marching as vanguard under 
Captain Salazar. Salazar met the first party of Texans on 
this side of Antonchico, which was composed ot Captain 
Louis, Van Ness and Messrs. Howard, Fitzgerald and Kendall 
who had been sent by Cook as emissaries to the alcalde of 
San Miguel announcing their coming as a peaceful expedi- 
tion. Salazar had no difficulty in obtaining their surrender, 
he disarmed them, and would have had them shot, had not 
Captain Ramon Vigil, the other officials, and the soldiers of 
the troop interceded for them, to whose entreaties Salazar 
yielded, but ordered, however, that their hands should be 
tied and in that condition, carried to San Miguel and from 
San Miguel to Santa Fe, but, as they met General Armijo, 
the later ordered that they should be taken back to San 
Miguel. Some historians assert that when Armijo arrived at 
San Miguel, with the said prisoners, there were already two 
more in jail at San Miguel, called Rowland and Baker, who, 
they say, were shot in the presence of Louis, Ness, Howard, 
Fitzgerald and Kendall, but this author believes that that 
assertion is one of the many fabrications which the fertile 
mind of some historians have consigned to history in detri- 
ment of truth and justice. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 405 

McLeod Surrenders With All His Forces. 

After some days' stay at San Miguel, Armijo continued 
his march southward accompanied by Louis who had 
betrayed his comrades, in search of the other portion of the 
Texan expedition, meeting McLeod and other persons of the 
expedition on the 5th of October, at Laguna Colorada, near 
Tucumcari. McLeod and all his men surrendered at di?- 
cretion and were conducted as prisoners to San Miguel, 
from which place they were dispatched on foot to Mexico, 
on October 17th. The unfortunate Texans suffered a great 
deal on the road to Mexico on account of the inhumanity 
with which they were treated by the soldiers who conducted 
them; and they might have fared worse had not Captain 
Albino Chacon gone with them, who though being a military, 
was a man of noble and humane sentiments, took pity on 
them and did all he could to mitigate their suffering till they 
reached El Paso del Norte, (now Juarez, Mexico) where they 
were received by General Gonzales and the Cure, Don Ramon 
Ortiz, who at once took interest in treating the prisoners 
with charity. 

Other Texan Expeditions. 

The year 1843, in the month of April, an expedition of 
banditti was organized in Texas, with John McDaniel as 
headchief, to come to New Mexico as thieves in order to rob 
the caravans which went from New Mexico to Missouri. 
The said expedition consisted of 15 men of the worst breed 
that could be found. McDaniel with his gang left Texas in 
April coming towards New Mexico. Armijo, who had already 
b'^en informed of the organization of said expedition, and 
others which were to follow it, asked reinfoi'cements from the 
governor of Chihuahua, who, thereupon, sent a batallion of 
soldiers under General Don Jose Montoredo. 

Death of Don Antonio Chavez. 

McDaniel, however, was able to enter New Mexico attack- 
ing several caravans, among them, that of Don Antonio 
Chavez who was traveling with only two wagons and five men. 
McDaniel met Don Antonio Chavez's train on the Napeste 



406 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

(Arkansas) River, and, as he caught him by surprise, he 
was enabled to capture Don Antonio Chdvez and the five men 
who accompanied him; they destroyed his wagons, stole 55 
mules, and ten thousand dollars that he carried in gold; and, 
not content with robbing him, they bound him hand and foot 
and killed him in the vilest and mostcowardly manner, casting 
his body into a chasm. The men who accompanied Don 
Antonio escaped. McDaniel and nine of his men were sub- 
sequently captured by United States soldiers, tried and hung 
in St. Louis, Missouri, for the murder of Chavez. 

Bandit Wordfield Attacks Town of Mora. 

^ In the same year and month, April, 1843, another Texan 
bandit, called Wordfield, set out from Texas towards New 
Mexico, with 24 men, all thieves and highwaymen, like him- 
self. Wordfield was able to reach as far as the town of Mora 
without being noticed, and attack the defenseless people of 
that village at midnight, killing five men, and leaving an equal 
number wounded, and stealing all the horses he could meet 
with. The next day the inhabitants of Mora started in 
pursuit of him. They overtook him and captured five of his 
companions, Wordfield and the others succeeding in escap- 
ing. The five prisoners were sent to Santa Fe, where they 
were punished with imprisonment. 

Third Texan Bandit. 

In the same month and year, April, 1843, the third and 
last of the Texas banditti, known in Texas by the name of 
"Colonel Snively," set out from Texas for Santa F6. Snively 
was going toward the Napeste River as his place of destina- 
tion, where he arrived in May, establishing his camp about 
100 miles below Bent's Fort. On the 17th of June, the annual 
cavaran from Missouri to Santa Fe was to arrive at Bent's 
Fort. This time it consisted of 60 wagons belonging to 
American and Mexican merchants of New Mexico, escorted 
by Capt. John Cook, with 200 American soldiers as far as 
Bent's Fort; and from New Mexico to Bent's Fort caravans 
were escorted by Mexican troops under the command of 
Captain Bentura Lovato. Through his spies Snively learned 
that the cavaran was about to arrive at Bent's Fort. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 407 

Death of Bentura Lovato — Capture of Snively by Gook. 

Snively then set out meeting with Captain Bentura Lovato 
already very near Bent's Fort. Lovato who was ^oing on the 
vanguard took Snively and his troop as the pickets of Cook's 
army; Snively taking in the mistake made by Lovato, fell 
suddenly upon him and his soldiers killing him and fifteen 
men and making prisoners almost all the rest. One of those 
who were able to escape made a report of the occurrence to 
the caravan and Cook's spies were informed of the encounter 
and these immediately advised Cook of what had occurred. 
Cook, next, set out hurriedly with 200 soldiers capturing 
Snively before he could hear of the arrival of the American 
army. Snively seeing himself surrounded gave himself up 
unconditionally, and the caravan was enabled to get to Bent's 
Fort, without any mishap. 

The murder of Bentura Lovato and his soldiers produced 
great alarm all over the Territory, and the Mexican govern- 
ment, immediately after being informed of the sad event, 
issued a decree whereby the entry into New Mexico was for- 
bidden to strangers who might be considered as banditti, and 
ordering the decapitation of all those strangers who should 
be caught as highwaymen. The capture of Snively was the 
epilogue in the well planned conspiracy between McDaniel, 
Wordfield and said Snively. Here ends the fifth chapter of 
Book Four of this work, to commence in the next the nar- 
rative one of the most important events recorded in the 
history of New Mexico — the invasion and taking of New 
Mexico by the army of the United States. 

Memorial of Rev. Antonio J. Martinez to Santa Anna. 

Before commencing the chapter following, it is necessary 
to relate here another incident of importance that happened 
in New Mexico in 1843. In November of that year the Pres- 
byter, Antonio Jose Martinez sent to President Santa Anna 
an interesting httle work printed on the printing press of 
said Presbyter at Taos, in which Father Martinez unfolded 
the gloomy situation of the people of New Mexico and 
assigned as the causes which produced such situation, two 



408 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

things, namely: The frequent incursions of the savage 
Indians and the great damages to the population which, on 
account of being almost abandoned by the Mexican govern- 
ment, was entirely at the mercy of the savages; in order to 
remedy that condition the Presbyter suggested that the gov- 
ernment should establish military garrisons in the most 
exposed points of the Territory and to place the said tribes 
of nomadic Indians under reservations, and under the care of 
the military branch of the government. Second, to the lack 
of tact on the part of the Mexican governors in having 
granted to the strangers of North America (Bent and others) 
permission to build forts along the Napeste and Chato rivers 
with the object of establishing in said forts commerce with 
the said tribes. Father Martinez maintained, among other 
things, or rather, accused said strangers of North America 
of being themselves the cause of the incursions of said tribes 
because, as he states it, they furnished them with arms and 
liquor. We subjoin below what on that matter Padre Mar- 
tinez said: 

"Although at the time of the Spanish government, the 
strangers of North America were not permitted to build 
forts in order to establish trade with the Indians of the 
north, because it was feared that, with such a pretext, they 
might pervert them and encourage them to revolt against us, 
and constantly harass this department, w'hich they have 
claimed as theirs, nevertheless at the present time. North 
Americans, through the liberality of our Mexican govern- 
ment, have been permitted to erect forts, and they are erect- 
ing them since the year 1832 to the present on the margins 
of the Rio Napeste (Arkansas) and Rio Chato and other inter- 
mediate places between the camps inhabited by those (Indian) 
nations. Besides the necessary and useful articles they also 
sell them liquors and whiskeys, which forbidden article has 
extremely demoralized said (Indian) nations and this with the 
others serve them as incentives for destroying the buffalo. 
That is also a cause for those Indians to make incursions into 
our department with the object of stealing horses bought of 
them by the owners of said forts; and that is also an occasion 
that several of the idle and ill-intentioned among our own 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 409 

people have determined and taken the choice of becoming 
horse thieves themselves in order to sell them in said 
forts."* 

*Exposition of Pi^esbyter Martinez, pp. li and 4. Said exposition 
was printed on tiie printing- press of Father Martinez in Taos, and the 
only copy extant is now in the hands of the author of this work. —The 
Author. 



CHAPTER VL 



The Yutas Attack Governor Martinez — Heroism of the Governor's 
Wife — Invasion of the American Army — March of the American 
Army — Taking of Santa Fe — Organization of the New Govern- 
ment — Official Appointment of Territorial Officers — An Anti- 
American Pronouncement — Bent Starts for Taos and is Assassi- 
nated — Others die With Him — Father Martinez Saves an Ameri- 
can and the Families of the Murdered Men — Murder at Mora and 
Las Vegas — Measures are Taken for the Punishment of the 
Rebels — Surrender of the Taos Indians and Execution of Their 
Ghief — Assault and Punishment of the Mora Insurgents — End of 
the War With Mexico — Historical Letter From California. — Yuta 
Indians Assault Governor Martinez. 



1843-1848. 

Let us say a word about an occurrence to Governor 
Mariano Martinez de Lejanza in the year 1844, before enter- 
ing upon the narrative of the North American invasion. In 
the year 1844, a large party of Yutas came to Santa Fe with 
the ostensible mission of making a treaty of peace with Gov- 
ernor Martinez, who received their captains in friendly 
terms in his office; while remaining alone with them, an 
altercation broke out between himself and said Indians, the 
dissension culminating in an assault against the person of 
the governor who, doubtless, would have been murdered by 
the Indians, had it not been for the timely intervention of the 
governor's wife, who heard the excited voice of her husband, 
and entered the room just at the moment when one of the 
Indians was about to stab the governor. The lady grasped 
a chair and threatened the Indian with it, uttering at the 
same time a shout of alarm. The soldier who acted as senti- 
nel entered next calling other soldiers at the same time. 
In the confusion which ensued the Indians escaped, but 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 411 

were caught by the troop and the citizens in the city park,, 
where they were attacked and many of them killed, the 
others succeeding in escaping, assaulting and killing whom- 
soever they met on their way, their first victim being the 
citizen Julian Martinez whom they killed at the Arroyo de 
los Guajes, near San Ildefonso; and at Tierra Azul, near 
Abiquiii, they met with Cruz Vigil, Ramon Vigil, and 
another Vigil, nicknamed Giiero Vigil, whom they assaulted 
leaving Giiero Vigil and Jose de la Cruz Vigil dead in the 
affray and two Indians, Ramon Vigil being the only one that 
could escape with a wound on his chest.* 

Governor Martinez Finds the Territory in Complete Bankruptcy — A 
Forcible Loan is Decreed — An Englishman, John Scolly, is Pun- 
ished for Refusing to Pay His Due — 1845. 

The insurrection of 1837, and the Texan invasions left the 
Territory in so precarious a condition that when Don Mariano 
Martinez de Lejanza took charge of the government (1844) the 
public treasury lacked the funds to pay the maintenance of 
the troops. In view of such a deplorable situation, the depart- 
mental assembly decreed upon demand of Governor Martinez, 
on the 14th of February, 1845, an individual impostor tax 
against the Mexican citizens, the sum which each citizen had 
to pay depending from his pecuniary means, the weight of 
the decree falling almost exclusively upon the landed and 
rich of the Territory. 

The step taken by Martinez bordered on despotism, but 
circumstances required extraordinary measures to save the 
population from the anarchy in which the chaotic state of the 
revenue was, inevitably, about to precipitate it. Immediately 
after the decree had been heralded, the decree was put into 
execution against an English individual called John Scolly 
(he was called "Escole" at Santa Pe), a merchant and resident 
of the Capital. Scolly was married to a native lady of Santa 
Fe, and he had, sometime before the approval of said decree, 

* The information for this narrative is due by the author to Don 
Francisco Vig-il y Montoya, relative to J. de la Cruz V^igil and Giiero 
Vig-il, resident of Espanola and of 85 years of age, said inforrnation 
having been given to the author on the 17th of August, 1910, by writing,^ 
at Espanola, and signed by said Francisco Vigil.— The Author. 



412 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

made an application for a certificate of Mexican citizenship. 
His application had been approved by the governor, but he 
was v^aiting for its final approval by the superior authority. 
In virtue of that application a tax of five hundred dollars wsls 
levied upon ScoUy, reputed already a Mexican citizen. He 
refused to obey the decree; wherefore the following sentence 
or peremptory * order was issued in which appears all that 
was said and done by either party. 

"Seal Fourth, Two Reals, the year one thousand eight 
hundred and forty-two, and one thousand eight hundred and 
forty-three. 

"Habilitated for the years of one thousand eight hundred 
and forty-five and one thousand eight hundred and forty-six. 
"Mariano Martinez, Governor, (Seal.) 
"Jose Antonio Chavez, (Seal), Administrator. 

"Santa Fe, April 1, 1845. 
"Senor Don Juan (John) Escole, being a debtor in the quan- 
tity of five hundred dollars, by decree of the most excellent 
assembly of the 14th of February last, for tax imposed as a 
loan with obligation of paying same as a Mexican citizen, 
which decree was issued because of the scarcity of resources 
in which the government of the department finds itself, to 
attend to the precise needs of the garrison; for that reason 
the mentioned decree being sanctioned, and published, the 
term of fifteen days was placed for the payment of said tax 
into the treasury of the department, and that requirement 
not having been verified, I went in person accompanied by 
my witnesses of attendance to the house of the mentioned Don 
Juan (John) Escole, to notify him in person that if within a 
third day he did not pay said sum into the designated treas- 
ury, the said five hundred dollars, he would be proceeded 
against by execution as it is provided in said decree. I, the 
citizen Franco. Ortiz y Delgado, 2nd constitutional alcalde, 
and by virtue of law, judge of the first instance and of the 
treasury. So I decreed, commanded and signed acting the 
foregoing with the witnesses of my attendance with whom I 

* The alluded decree is in the hands of this author. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 413^^ 

act as repertory in the lack of a public notary, there being 
none, in this department of which I give testimony. 

"Francisco Ortiz y Delgado, (Rubric). 
"Witness of attendance: "Witness of attendance: 

"Nicolas Pino, (Rubric) "Anastacio Sandoval," (Rubric) 

"In the City of Santa Pe, Capital of the Department of New 
Mexico, and in the same day, month and year. I, the citizen 
Franco Ortiz y Delgado, 2nd constitutional alcalde and judge 
of the 1st instance of the treasury aforesaid, visited the 
house of Don Juan Escole, accompanied by those (witnesses) 
of my attendance in compliance with the command aforesaid 
and of the superior order of the most Excellent Sr. Governor 
yesterday, when he was present, I made known to him the 
contents thereof; when he was informed, he said; that he is^ 
not, nor holds himself a Mexican citizen, although he is 
married to a Mexican lady, so long as his letter of citizen- 
ship is not delivered to him which he has solicited and paid 
for; that he expects the decision of the Mexican government,, 
but meanwhile considers himself a citizen of Great Britain. 
This he answered and signed with me and those (witnesses) 
of my attendance with whom I act as my repertory, in the 
absence of notary pubhc. there being none of any kind in 
this department. 

I give the testimony, 

"Juan Scolly" 

"Francisco Ortiz y Delgado'" (Rubric) 
Of attendance Of attendance 

"Anastacio Sandoval" (Rubric) "Nicolas Pino" (Rubric) 

"On said day, month, and year, in compliance with what 
has been disposed by his Excellency, the governor by his 
official letter of the day in which he decided what appears in 
what is attached hereto and for its compliance let Don Juan 
Scolly be summoned that he may be informed of its contents, 
and let him answer what may suit him. So I decreed, com- 
manded and signed it, with those (witnesses) of my atten- 
dance of which I bear testimony. 

''Francisco Ortiz y Delgado" (Rubric) 
Of attendance Of attendance 

"Nicolas Pino" (Rubric) "Anastacio Sandoval" (Rubric) 



414 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Notification: — Incontinenti, Don JuanEscole being present, 
in virtue of the aforesaid Superior Official letter says that he 
hears it, and that he cannot prescind from the solicitude he 
has made respecting his naturalization papers which he has 
petitioned from the supreme government, and that while 
this does not come, no one should consider him as such a 
citizen: This he answered and signed with me and those 
of my attendance of which I bear testimony. 

"Juan Scolly" 

"Franco Ortiz y Delgado" (Rubric) 
Of attendance Of attendance 

"Anastacio Sandoval" (Rubric) "Nicolas Pino" (Rubric) 

"In this city of Santa F6 on the second day of the month 
of April, one thousand eight hundred and forty five. Having 
ex-officio rendered a report to his Excellency, the governor, 
through his secretary, has commanded me to summon the 
said Don Juan Escole and verbally ordered me not to wait 
for any answer from said Escole, instructing me, at the same 
time, to only adhere to the first order which is attached 
hereto and that I should proceed to verbally notify to said 
Don Juan Escole the suspension of his business in his 
two stores, a thing I did, in effect, yesterday at about six 
o'clock in the evening in the presence of the two witnesses 
of my attendance who heard me make to him, Escole, the 
intimation, adding furthermore, that said intimation was 
made by order of his Excellency which he had verbally given 
me and that for every half a bit (half dime) of lard, or meat, 
by him sold, a fine of two hundred dollars would be imposed 
on him, and that it may so appear, I have signed, myself as 
the present justice, with those of my attendance. 

"Franco Ortiz y Delgado'' (Rubric) 
Of attendance Of attendance 

"Anastacio Sandoval" (Rubric) "Nicolas Pino" (Rubric) 

As it does not appear in the transaction whether or not 
Scolly paid the $500.00 fine or had to suspend the sale of his 
merchandise, the supposition is justifiable that he did pay the 
fine as that was the only alternative left him in order to 
avoid heavy losses. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 415 

Last Election of Officers Under the Mexican Government. 

On the 7th of October, 1845, the commission which 
appointed, or elected the deputy to the National Congress 
and the members of the departmental assembly met in Santa 
F^, with the object of making the election of said officials. 
Said commission was appointed by the governor and its 
duties ended with the choice of a regular delegate and sub- 
stitute to the Congress, and five members and three sub- 
stitutes which composed the departmental assembly. On 
account of the peculiarity of their functions, this commission 
was designated by the high-sounding title of "Electoral 
College." Its number or personel was three individuals. 
On that day the result of the election was: For deputy to con- 
gress, Don Tomas Chavez y Castillo, for substitute, Don 
Vincente Sanchez Vergara. For the departmental assembly, 
the Messrs. Presbyter Antonio Jose Martinez, Tomds Ortiz, 
Juan Perea, Juan Cristobal Armijo and Felipe Sena. Sub- 
stitutes, Don Serafin Ramires, Don Vicente Martinez and 
Don Santiago Armijo. Those functionaries were acting in 
their respective posts at the time of the change of govern- 
ment in August of the year following.* Let us now go back 
to the epoch of the most transcendental importance in the 
historical annals of New Mexico — the American invasion and 
the third change of government. 

Invasion by the American Army. 

As we have already informed the reader about the war 
that existed between Mexico and Texas in the year 1841, we 
will now state that said war finally resulted in the rupture 
of hostilities between the United States and Mexico, in May, 
1846, but as in another work f we give the complete and 
detailed history of that war and its consequences, we shall 
content ourselves now by making a concrete reference to said 
war referring the reader to the alluded work for further in- 
formation upon that subject. 

*The original official list of that last election is in the possession of 
the author of this work, the picture of said list is published in another 
part of this work. Read's: Hist. Sinop. de la Guerra Mex. -Americana. 
t Read's: Hist. Sinop. dela Guerra Mex. Americana. 



416 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



In the year 1846, Don Manuel Armijo being governor of 
New Mexico, General Kearny entered New Mexico at the 
head of the American army, and, without tiring a shot, 
received the voluntary submission of the people of New 
Mexico, took possession of the Capital of the Territory, and 
organized a new government under the American flag. The 
impartial reader must have, doubtless, already realized the 
very sad situation in which the inhabitants of New Mexico 

were found in 1846, when 
the change of flags was 
effected, and, from the in- 
formation he has so re- 
ceived in the foregoing 
chapters of this work,, 
must have felt convinced 
that the people of New 
Mexico in submitting to 
the American army de- 
serve no censure for its 
apparent lack of patriot- 
ism or civic valor, but are 
rather worthy of admira- 
tion for having foreseen 
that if that war would in- 
evitably have to result in 
the defeat of Mexico, and 
the economical material,, 
industrial conditions of 
the Territory demanded, 
as a prudent and neces- 
sary thing, the step taken by the people in declaring 
in favor of the American government, insuring thus the 
happiness and higher civilization of the inhabitants of the 
Territory; the change was furthermore made necessary 
because of the contempt and abandonment with which the 
Spanish and Mexican governments had treated the inhab- 
itants of New Mexico. With this brief introduction the 
historical veil of that epoch is rent asunder allowing us to 
present to the reader the operations practiced by the Amer- 
ican government during that memorable date. 




Charles Bent. 
First Anim-iean Governor. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



41" 



March of the American Army — Capture of Santa Fe — Organization of 
The New Government. 

In the month of June, 1846, the third division of the Ame- 
rican army, designated by the name of the "Army of the 
West," set out from Fort Leavenworth, under General 
Kearny, v^ith 300 men of the regular army, and a cavalry 
regiment under Colonel Doniphan, who had with him, in 
addition to said regiment, '--^ 

500 volunteers making a 
total of 1700 armed men. 
Colonel Sterling Price fol- 
lowed with another di- 
vision of 1800 men, the 
two armies making up a 
total of 3500 men, in- 
fantry, cavalry, and artil- 
lery. The army reached 
Bent's Fort in August, 
where it was expected by 
Lieutenant Emory, chief 
of the military engineers, 
who was to accompany 
Kearny's army on the 
march. Let us now leave 
the American army in 
camp at Bent's Fort, and 
take a glance at the Capi- 
tal of New Mexico, to fa- 
miliarize the reader with 
the preparations Armijo was making to repel the invade 
ing enemy. As soon as it was learned in Santa Fe that the 
American army was encamped at Bent's Fort, a private 
meeting was held in the City of Santa Fe, in which the 
principal citizens took part with the object of discussing the 
steps that should be taken. (The author obtained this in- 
formation in the year 1884, at Santa F^, from Don Jos6 Pabla 
Gallegos, who was present in that meeting. Said information 
is in the hands of the author.) The majority of the persons 
present preferred to surrender without resistance; the 




Col. Kit Carson. 
Pioneer, Path Finder and American Scout. 



418 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

others under the leadership of Don Manuel Chavez, Don 
Miguel E. Pino, Don Nicolds Pino, Don Tomas C. de Baca, 
and a lawyer named Ifiigo, who had just arrived from 
Mexico, held that the enemy should be fought against. The 
later were able to prevail. They prepared a programme in 
which Messrs. Pino and Baca were entrusted to take charge, 
with General Armijo, of the forces which should repel the 
enemy. Said programme was presented to General Armijo 
who approved it with reluctance, for, as the reader will 
afterwards see, when the supreme moment came, he 
cowardly abandoned his army, and therewith surrendered 
the Territory, to the enemy. This was on the 7th of August, 
1846. On the next day the Governor issued the following 
bombastic proclamation: 

•'The Governor and Commandant General of New Mexico. 

"To Its Inhabitants: 

"Fellow Patriots: The moment has, at last, come when the 
country requires from her sons, the unlimited decision, the 
reserveless sacrifices, which circumstances, extreme under 
any point of view, claim for its salvation. The troubles with 
the United States of America, managed with dignity and 
decorum by the Supreme Magistrate of our Republic, have 
not been satisfactorily concluded as demanded by the 
unquestionable rights of Mexico over the usurped territory 
of Texas, and, for that reason, it has been indispensably 
necessary to suspend the diplomatic relations with the 
rejected minister and envoy extraordinary from the North 
American government; but the forces of that government 
are advancing on this department; they have already crossed 
the line, and at this date are found very near Colorado. 
Behold, fellow citizens, the invasion is the sign of alarm that 
must prepare us for the combat. The eagle that summoned 
you at Iguala under the national standard forming a single 
family out of us all, with one single will, calls on you today 
to gather around the supreme government, and of the super- 
ior of this department to defend the most just and holiest of 
causes. You then could conquer without external help, led 
only by your noble efforts and heroic patriotism, the inde- 
pendence of our nation, which is worthy of better fate. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 419 

Today that sacred boon, the fruit of so many and so costly 
sacrifices, is threatened; for, if we are not able to preserve 
the integrity of our Territory, all this country would very 
soon be the prey of the greed and enterprising spirit of our 
neighbors of the north, and nothing would remain save a sad 
remembrance of our political existence. 

"But for God's sake it must not be so! The Mexicans of 
today are yet those of the year 1810. Divided then, and even 
before having a country, they dominated the arrogance of 
a foreign and powerful government. When the armed force 
is united to the peoples, and both defend jointly their threat- 
ened independence, the outraged national honor and the 
scorned rights of their country, they form by their union a 
compact and invincible whole. I incite you, my fellow citi- 
zens, and fellow patriots, that in union with the regular 
militaries, you strengthen those sentiments of union and 
brotherly harmony with your arms as defenders of our coun- 
try; for only this sincere union can lead us to a glorious tri- 
umph, for the Author and Preserver of all societies left written 
in his golden book these decisive words: 'A house divided 
against itself shall fall." Never forget this sentence; nor do 
ever separate your interests from the common cause, for 
with union, resources, public spirit and genuine patriotism 
will follow. I assure you that the Mexican Republic will 
know how to make its enemies respect us, and will present 
to the civilized world the brilliant titles it possesses in order 
to belong to free and enlightened nations. 

"Be prepared, then, my fellow patriots, to perform the 
part that belongs to you in the great contest to which the 
nation now calls you. We happily have at the head of its 
supreme administration an illustrious general, honorable and 
patriotic, who, just as he has upheld with dignity and energy 
the sacred laws of his country, will also trace for us a road 
to glory. Let us be ready for war since we are provoked to 
it; let us not look at the strength and power of our enemies, 
nor at the size of the obstacles we have to overcome. The god 
of armies is also protector of the justice of nations, and, with 
his powerful aid, we will be able to add another brilliant page 
to the history of Mexico, and enhance her credit before the 
world (if it be possible, for no one is obliged to do what is 



a- 



420 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

impossible) which our country deserves to enjoy with the 

title of a free and independent republic. But with respect 

to the defense of the department in the actual invasion, 

your governor is dependent upon your pecuniary resources, 

upon your decision, and upon your convictions, founded 

on reason, on justice, equity and public convenience; assuring 

you that he who actually governs you is ready to sacrifice 

his life and interests in defense of his beloved country. 

All this you will see fulfilled by your chief, fellow patriot 

and friend. * 

"Manuel Armijo. (Seal). 

"Santa F6, Saturday, 8th of August, 1846." 

Cooks' Secret Interview — Emory's Account. 

In spite of the high sounding proclamation which the 
reader has just read, Armijo received Captain Cook in secret 
conference. Cook had been sent by Kearny, that being the 
reason why some writers assert that, with this circumstance 
and through his subsequent conduct, Armijo proved all the 
words of his proclamation to be mere bravados. The prepa- 
rations, followed, however, to ostensibly meet the enemy, 
about which we will give a complete narrative with the very 
words of Captain Don Rafael Chacon, residing today in Tri- 
nidad, State of Colorado, who was not only an eye witness, 
but though of tender age, at that time, was one of the mili- 
taries, a cadet and artillery man; nevertheless, before giving 
Captain Don Rafael Chacon's account, the author deems it just 

* The orig-inal of this important document, Armijo' s proclamation 
was fortunately found by the author of this work very recently. 
Nothing- was known of its existence before. Later, on Aug-ust 10, 1846, 
Armijo formally asked the departmental assembly to appropriate at 
least one thousand dollars to enable him to buy provisions for the 
starving army. The assembly in its session of that day — which was 
the last session and which was so stormy that neither its officers nor 
its members thought of signing the minutes — had first authorized a 
forced loan of $1,000.00 for Armijo, and further, authorized him to 
borrow a similar sum from private individuals, but finally declined 
and rescinded its own resolution, thus leaving Armijo powerless to 
feed his men and compelling him to face the enemy with an army of 
hunger-dying men. No wonder, then, that he deserted the field of honor 
rather than to expose his men to inevitable destruction. — The Author^ 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 421 

and necessary to give the exact account from the American 
side, that is, the account which Lieutenant Emory, ex-officio, 
gave to the American government regarding the march of 
the army and the taking of the Territory. The reader 
will thus be enabled to hear from the lips of two officials 
who witnessed the consummation of the memorable event, 
both in distinct positions ready to struggle for their respect- 
ive flags. In giving the account of that important transition 
which marked an epoch in our history, the author follows the 
method which he has adopted from the beginning of this 
work, that is, to give, in every case possible, the original 
information, completely ignoring the conjectural conclusions 
of other w riters, so that the reader may be able to receive his 
information from the very source and thence form his own 
opinion. 

Report of Lieutenant Colonel Emory. 

As an original document, almost entirely unknown, and of 
great historical value, we insert, in the sequel, the diary and 
report of Lieutenant Col. W. H. Emory, of the corps of topo- 
graphical engineers, who accompanied the army of Col, 
Kearny when he came to effect the annexation of New 
Mexico. The portion we reproduce relates particularly to 
the march as far as Santa Fe and the principal incidents that 
happened in the transit. Emory speaks: 

"August 2, 1846. — I looked in the direction of Bent's Port, 
and saw a huge United States flag flowing to the breeze and 
straining every fibre of an ash pole planted over the center of 
the gate. The mystery was soon revealed by a column of 
dust to the east, advancing with about the velocity of a fast 
walking horse — it was the 'Army of the West.' I ordered 
my horses to be hitched up, and, as the column passed, took 
my place with the staff. 

"A little below the fort the river was forded without dif- 
ficulty, being paved with well attritioned pebbles of the 
primitive rock and not more than knee deep. 

"Colonel Doniphan was ordered to pursue the Arkansas 
to near the mouth of the Timpas, and rejoin the array by fol- 
lowing the bed of that stream. 

"Along the Arkansas the principal growth consists of very 



422 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

coarse grass and few cottonwoods and willows. Our march 
was 26 miles, that of the army 37; the last 20 miles without 
water. 

"The artillery arrived about 11 p. m.; both men and horses 
were parched with thirst. The teamsters, who had to 
encounter the dust, suffered very much. When water was 
near, they sprang from their seats and ran for it like mad 
men. Two horses sank under this day's march. 

"August 3.— We ascended the Timpas six and three 
quarter miles, and halted for the day near running water; 
the grass was burned dry, and not a green sprig to be seen. 
Colonel Doniphan's division passed our camp about 4 p. m. 

"August 4. — The road wound through the valley of the 
Timpas. The soil being impregnated with lime, rendered 
the dust, which rose in dense columns, distressing. 

"Thirteen miles' march brought us to the crossing of the 
Timpas. The only water we found there was in a hole thirt3^ 
feet in diameter, into which the men rushed with great 
eagerness, disturbing the vegetable deposit formed on its 
surface, and thereby rendering it unfit for use. Nine miles 
further we came to 'the hole on the Rocke'— a large hole 
filled with stagnant, though drinkable, water. ^ 

"We reached 'the hole in the prairie' at 10 p. m., the dis- 
tance being 144^ miles, and found grass, as we expected; we 
were agreeably surprised to find water also. The night 
was delicious and all slept in the open air. The infantry was 
encamped here. 

"August 5. — Today we descended eleven and a half miles 
and reached the valley of the Purgatory, called by the moun- 
tain men 'the Picatoire,' a corruption of Purgatoire, a swift 
running stream a few yards in width, but no grass of any 
amount at the crossing. The blighted trunks of large Cot- 
tonwood and locust trees were seen along its course. At five 
miles and a half we encamped on the bed of a tributary to 
the Pa rgatoire, which comes down from the north side of 
the Raton range. 

"Captain Cooke of the first dragoons was sent ahead the 
day before yesterday, to sound Armijo. Mr. Liffendorfer, a 
trader, married to a Santa Pe lady, was sent in the direction 
of Taos, with two Pueblo Indians to feel the pulse of the 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 423 

Pueblos and the Mexican citizens, and, probably, to buy- 
wheat, if any could be purchased, and to distribute procla- 
mations of the colonel commanding. Yesterday William 
Bent and six others, forming a spy guard were sent forward 
bo reconnoitre the mountain passes. 

"August 6. — Colonel Kearny left Colonel Doniphan's regi- 
ment and Major Clarke's artillery at our old camp ground 
last night, and scattered Sumner's dragoons three or four 
miles up the creek to pass the day in renovating the animals 
by nips at the little bunches of grass spread at intervals in 
the valley. This being done, we commenced the ascent of 
the Raton, and after marching seventeen miles, halted, with 
the infantry and general staff within a half mile of the 
summit of the pass. Strong parties were sent forward to 
repair the road which winds through a picturesque valley 
with the Raton towering to the left. 

■'An express returned from the spy guard which reported 
all clear in front. Capt. Cooke, and Mr. Liffendorfer have 
onl}'' reached the Canadian river. 

"August 7. Camp 36 We recommenced the ascent of the 

Raton, which we reached with ease, with our wagons in 
a'oout two miles. The height of this point above the sea, as 
indicated by the barometer, is 7,500 feet. 

"The descent is much more rapid than the ascent, and, for 
the first few miles through a valley of good burned grass 
and stagnant water, containing many beautiful flowers. 
But frequently you come to a place where the stream (a 
branch of the Canadian) has worked itself through the 
mountains and the road has to ascend and then descend a 
sharp spur. Here the difficulties commence: and the road 
for three or four miles, is just passable for a wagon; many of 
the train were broken in the passage. A few thousand 
dollars judiciously expended here would be an immense 
saving to the government, if the Santa Fe country is to be 
permanently occupied and Bent's Fort road adopted. A 
few miles from the summit we reached a wide valley where 
the mountains open out and the inhospitable looking hills 
recede to a respectable distance right and left. Sixteen 
miles from camp 36 brought us to the main branch of the 
Canadian, a slow running stream discharging a volume of 



424 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO, 

water the thickness of a man's Vv'aist. We found here Bent's 
camp. 

"To-day we commenced our half ration bread: though not 
suffering for meat, we are anxious to seize on Santa Fe and 
its stock of provisions as soon as possible. 

"Augusts. — We remained in camp all day to allow Colonel 
Doniphan's regiment and artillery to come up. 

"August 9. — We broke up camp at 2:30 o'clock, and 
marched with the Colonel's staff and the first dragoons 104 
miles, and encamped under the mountains on the western side 
of the Canadian on the banks of a small stream tributary to the 
Canadian. At a distance of six miles from last night's camp ' 
the road forks, one fork running near the mountains to the 
west, but nearly parallel to the old road, and never dis- 
tant more than four miles, and almost all the time in sight 
of it. The army was divided, the artillery, infantry, and 
wagon train ordered to take the lower, and the Missouri 
volunteers and first dragoons, the upper road. The valley 
here opens out into an extensive plain, slightly rolling, 
flanked on each side by ranges of perpendicular hills covered 
with stunted cedar and the pifion. In this extensive valley 
or plain may be traced by the eye, from any of the neigh- 
boring heights, the valleys of the Canadian and its tributaries 
the Vermejo, the Ponil, the small Cimarron, the Rayado, and 
the Ocate We saw troops of antelopes, horses, deer, etc., 
etc. 

"August 10. — Colonel Kearny being dissatisfied with the 
upper road determined to strike for the old road. We did so 
after reaching the Vermejo, 9^ miles in a diagonal line, and 
rejoined it at the crossing of the little Cimarron where we 
found the infantry encamped — total distance — 204 miles. A 
Mexican came into camp from Bent's Fort and reported 
Lieutenant Albert much better. Colonel Kearny allowed 
him to pass to Taos, which place (60 miles distant by a bridle 
path) he expected to reach to-night. The colonel sent by 
him copies of his proclamation. Five Mexicans were cap- 
tured by Bent's spy company; they were sent out to recon- 
noitre our forces, with orders to detain all persons passing 
out of New Mexico. They were mounted on diminutive 
asses. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 425 

"Mr. Towle, an American citizen, came to headquarters at 
the Vermejo, and reported himself just escaped from Taos. 
He brought the intelligence that, yesterday, the proclamation 
of Governor Armijo reached there, calling the citizens to 
arms, and placing the whole country under martial law; 
that Armijo has assembled all the pueblo Indians, number- 
ing about two thousand, and all the citizens capable of 
bearing arms; that three hundred Mexican dragoons arrived 
in Santa Fe the day Armijo's proclamation was issued, and 
that twelve hundred more were hourly expected; that the 
Mexicans to a man were anxious for a tight, but that half of 
the pueblo Indians were indifferent on the subject, but 
would be made to fight. 

"We made a long march today with the advance guard and 
the first dragoons, to the Ocate. Matters are now becoming 
very interesting. Six or eight Mexicans were captured last 
night, and on their persons were found the proclamation of 
the Prefect of Taos, based upon that of Armijo calling the 
citizens to arms to repel the 'Americans who were coming to 
invade their soil and to destroy their property and liberties,' 
ordering an enrollment of all the citizens over 15 and under 
50. It is decidedly less bombastic than any Mexican paper 
I have seen. Colonel Kearny assembled these prisoners, 
altogether some ten or twelve, made a speech to them, and 
ordered that, when the rear guard of the army should have 
passed, they should be released. These men were not de- 
ficient in form or stature; their faces expressed good nature 
bordering on idiocy; they were mounted on little donkies and 
jennies, guided by clubs instead of bridles. 

"Two more Mexicans of a better class were captured to- 
night, or rather, they came into camp. Their story was, that 
theyhadcomeoutby order of the alcalde of Mora Town to look 
out for their standing enemies, the Yutas who were reported 
in the neighborhood. That they had heard of our advance 
sometime since, but believed us to be at the Kayado, 22 miles 
back; but seeing our wagons, and having faith in the Amer- 
icans, they rode without hesitation into our camp. When 
they said they had faith in us, the Colonel ordered them to 
shake hands with him. They were ordered to be detained a 
day or two, for it was quite evident to all, they were spies 



426 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

who had come too suddenly into the httle ravine in which we 
were encamped. They appeared well pleased, and one of 
them, after proceeding a few steps with the guard, turned 
back and presented the colonel with a fresh cream cheese. 

"August 12. — The elder Mexican was discharged, giving 
him two proclamations: one for the alcalde, another for the 
people of his town. A message was sent to the alcalde to 
meet us at the crossing of the Mora with several of his chief 
men. The other Mexican was detained as a guide. About 
twelve o'clock the advance was sounded, and the colonel, 
with Sumner's command marched 20 miles, and halted in a 
beautiful valley of fine grass and pools of cool water. 

"August 13 — At 12 o'clock we were off, and we had not 
advanced more than a mile, when Bent came up with four 
prisoners. They represented themselves to be an ensign 
and three privates of the Mexican army, sent forward to 
reconnoitre and ascertain our force. They said 600 men 
were at the Vegas to give us battle. They told many different 
stories, and finally delivered up a paper, being an order 
from a Captain Gonzales to the ensign to go forward on the 
Bent's Port road to ascertain our position and numbers. 
They were cross-examined by the Colonel and detained. 

"We commenced the descent into the valley of the Mora 
creek, and six miles of march brought us to the first settle- 
ment we had seen in 775 miles. There lived an American^ 
named Boney, who has been sometime in the country, and is 
the owner of a large number of horses and cattle. He drove 
his herd of cattle into camp and picked out the largest and 
fattest, which he presented to the army. 

"Two miles below at the junction of the Mora and Sapello,. 
is another American, Mr. Wells. We halted at the Sapello. 

"At this place, Mr. Spry came into camp on foot, and with 
scarcely any clothing He had escaped from Santa F^ the 
night previous, at Mr.H — "s request, to inform Colonel Kearny 
that Armijo's forces were assembling; that he might expect 
vigorous resistance, and that a place called Canon, 15 miles 
from Santa Pe, was being fortified; and to advise the colonel 
to go round it. The canon is a narrow detile easily defended, 
and of which we have heard a great deal. War now seems 
"inevitable," and the advantages of ground and numbers 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 427 

will, no doubt, enable the Mexicans to make the fight inter- 
esting. 

"August 14. — The order of march today was that which 
could be easily converted into the order of battle. After 
proceeding a few miles we met a queer cavalcade, which we 
supposed at first to be the looked for alcalde of Mora town, 
but it proved to be a messenger from Armijo — a lieutenant, 
accompanied by a sergeant and two privates of Mexican lan- 
cers. They brought a letter from Armijo. It was a sen- 
sible, straightforward missive, and, if written by an Amer- 
ican, or an Englishman, would have meant this: 'You have 
notified me that you intend to take possession of the country 
I govern. The people of the country have risen en masse in 
my defense. If you take the country, it will be because you 
prove the stronger in battle. I suggest to you to stop at 
Sapello, and I will march to Las Vegas. We will meet and 
negotiate on the plains between them.' The colonel 
answered: 'The road to Santa Fe is now as free to you as 
myself. Say to General Armijo I shall soon meet him, and I 
hope it will be as friends.' Captain Turner was sent to the 
village to inform the alcalde that the colonel wished to see 
him and the head men of the town. In a short time down 
came the alcalde and two captains of militia with numerous 
servants. 

"August 15. — Twelve o'clock last night information was 
received that 600 men had collected at the pass which 
debouches into the Vegas, two miles distant, and were to 
oppose our march. In the morning orders were given to 
prepare to meet the enemy. At 7 o'clock the army moved. 

"At eight precisely, the general was in the public square, 
where he was met by the alcalde and people; many of whom 
were mounted, for these people seem to live on horseback. 

"The general spoke as follows: 'Mr. Alcalde and people of 
New Mexico: I have come amongst you by orders of my 
government to take possession of your country and extend 
over it the laws of the United States. We come amongst you 
as friends — not as enemies; as protectors — not as conquerors. 
We come among you for your benefit — not for your injury. 

" 'Henceforth, I absolve you from all allegiance to the 
Mexican government, and all obedience to General Armijo. 



428 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

He is no longer your governor; (great sensation) I am your 
governor. I shall not expect from you to take up arms, and 
follow me, to fight your own people who may oppose me; but 
I now tell you, that those who remain peaceably at home 
attending to their crops and their herds shall be protected by 
me in their property, their persons, and their religions and 
not a pepper, or an onion shall be disturbed or taken by my 
troops without pay or without the consent of the owner. 
But listen! He, who promises to be quiet, and is found in 
arms against me, I shall hang. 

" 'From the Mexican Government you have never received 
protection. The Apaches and the Navajoes come down from 
the mountains and carried offyoar sheep, and even your 
women, whenever they please. My government will correct 
all this. It will keep off the Indians, protect you in your 
persons and property, and I repeat again, will protect you in 
your religion. I know you are all great Catholics; that some 
of your priests have told you all sorts of stories — that we 
should ill-treat your women and brand them on the cheek, as 
you do your mules on the hip. It is all false. My govern- 
ment respects your religion as much as the Protestant reli- 
gion and allows each man to worship his Creator as his heart 
tells him is best. Its laws protect the Catholic as well as 
the Protestant; the weak as well as the strong; the poor as 
well as the rich. I am net a Catholic myself — I was not 
brought up in that faith; but at least one third of my army 
are Catholics, and I respect a good Catholic, as much as a 
good Protestant. There goes my army — you see but a small 
portion of it — there are many more behind — resistance is 
useless. 

" 'Mr. Alcalde, and you two captains of militia, the laws of 
my country require that all men who hold office under it 
should take oath of allegiance. I do not wish for the pre- 
sent, until affairs become more settled, to disturb your form 
of government, I shall continue you in office and support you 
in authority.' 

' 'This was a bitter pill ; but it was swallowed with down cast 
eyes. The general remarked to him in hearing of all the 
people: 'Captain look me in the face while you repeat the 
oath of office.' The hint was understood; the oath taken, 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 429 

and the alcalde and two captains pronounced to be continued 
in office. 

"We continued our march with flags unfurled and in order 
of battle to encounter the 600 Mexicans on the gorge of the 
mountains two miles distant, but the notice was false, for we 
met nothing. 

"August 16. — We marched to San Miguel where General 
Kearny assembled the people and harangued them much the 
same way as at Las Vegas. 

"Reports now reached us at every step, that the people were 
rising, and that Armijo was collecting a formidable force to 
oppose our march. Two Pueblo Indians previously sent in 
to sound the chief men of that formidable tribe were seen in 
the distance at full speed and one of them reported that 
Armijo with his forces was intrenched at the canon. 

"August 17. — The picket guards stationed on the road cap- 
tured the son of Saliza, who, it is said, is to play an 
important part in the defense of this country. 

"A rumor has reached camp, that the 2000 Mexicans 
assembled in the canon to oppose us, have quarrelled among 
themselves; that Armijo, taking advantage of the dissensions, 
fled with his dragoons and artillery to the south. 

"He has long been suspected of wishing an excuse to fly. 
It is well known he has been averse to a battle, but some of 
his people threatened his life if he refused to fight." 

Here we shall break the narrative of Lieutenant Emory to- 
take a glance at what was going on in the camp of the Mexican 
army. As the reader will afterwards see in the account given 
by Captain Chacon, Armijo found himself with an army devoid 
of discipline, without ammunitions of war, without food,, 
unarmed, with his men divided, fighting among themselves, 
and, above all, without patriotism; — a situation, indeed, pro- 
foundly alarming, especially when he had to cope against an 
army plentifully provisioned and highly patriotic. These 
were powerful reasons to induce Armijo to take to flight, a 
thing he did leaving his army in complete disorder. In the 
city, Don Juan Bautista Vigil had remained as secretary of 
government, who, through the effect of the same law, imme- 
diately after the flight of Armijo assumed the charge as 
governor ad interim. It is not known how the proclamation 



430 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

issued by Kearny at Bent's Fort on July 31, 1846, to the 
inhabitants of New Mexico, reached the hands of Vigil, In 
that proclamation Kearny made it known that he came to take 
the Territory in the name of his government as a friend, not 
as an enemy, and it is also certain that, as an affair prear- 
ranged and predetermined between Armijo, Kearny and 
Vigil, the proclamation was in Santa Fe. As soon as Vigil 
heard of the flight of Armijo, he issued a proclamation advis- 
ing all the residents in the city to remain in their homes 
assuring them that the American army, by reason of Armijo's 
flight, would take possession of the Territory, and as that 
army was not composed of cruel and savage men, they would 
receive ample protection from said army in their persons, 
their lives and their properties, displaying at the same time 
Kearny's proclamation. That document, or proclamation of 
Vigil, as well as Kearny's proclamation, had not been seen in 
history, no one knowing their whereabouts; but fortunately 
they came to the hands of the author of this work, together 
with other documents of equal historical value in the nick of 
time to be inserted in this work. We give below said procla- 
mation; the pi(;ture of which is published in another part of 
this work. 

Vigil's Proclamation. 

"Juan Bautista Vigil y Alarid, political and military gov- 
ernor ad interim of the Department of New Mexico, to the 
inhabitants of the Capital, Santa Fe, know ye: That notwith- 
standing the means I have set in motion, it has not been 
possible for me to calm the fears which the flight of General 
Armijo has infused in its inhabitants, the desertion of his 
soldiers, or, that which is more, and the dread that has been 
caused because of the approach of the military forces of the 
government of the United States of North America to this 
Capital; and, whereas many families are leaving their homes 
in order to hide in the deserts, as if said forces were com- 
posed of ctuel and sanguinary savages, believing that they 
will have no security, no protection of their lives and interests 
on the part of the chief who commands that army, and in 
order to quiet these fears down, I have been pleased to com- 
mand that the proclamation of the said chief of said forces be 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 431 

fixed on the public places, which proclamation is of the fol- 
lowing tenor: 'Proclamation of Colonel Kearny, commandant 
of the forces of the United States of America to the citizens 
of New Mexico. The undersigned enters New Mexico with 
a great military force with the object of seeking union and to 
ameliorate the condition of its inhabitants; he does all this 
by instructions of his government by which he will be effica- 
ciously sustained in order to carry into effect its views. 
He, therefore, recommends the inhabitants of New Mexico to 
remain tranquil in their honies and continue in their peace- 
able avocations and labors, with the assurance that while they 
continue their daily occupations and labors, they will not be 
molested by the American army, but on the contrary, they 
will be respected and protected in all their rights, both civil 
and religious. All those who shall take arms, and encourage 
and recommend resistance to the government of the United 
States will be looked upon as enemies and treated accord- 
ingly. Camp at Bent's Fort, July 31, 1840. Yours truly, 
Kearny, colonelof the 1st Dragoons.' 

'It is a copy of the original, Santa Pe, August 17, 1846. 

"Juan Bautista Vigil y Alarid. (Seal). 

"Nicolas Quintana, Sec'y., (Seal). 

"Miguel Gorilla. (Seal). 

"Miguel Antonio."' (Seal). 

Captain Rafael Chacon s Letter- 
Let US now see the picture given us by Captain D. Rafael 
Chdcon, of what passed in the camp of Armijo immediately 
before his flight. In a letter dated at Trinidad, May 4th, 
1910, addressed to the author of this work by said Captain 
Chacon, the following account is given: — 

"Trinidad, Colo., May 4th, 1910" 
"Hon. Benj. M. Read, Santa Fe, N. M. 

"My esteemed friend- — Honoring your request, as per 
your letter to my son, I herewith give you a statement of 
what I recall concerning the taking of New Mexico by the 
Americans. At that time, I was incapable of estimating 
mens actions. I was a child; when I reached mature age I 
cast a glance back to that event and what first struck my 



432 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

imagination was that the conquering army came provided 
with everything that was necessary for the conquest. Gen^ 
eral A rmijo and our poor people had no other resource than 
that of ^'going to fight,''' being used to the summons for a 
campaign against the savage Indians, to prepare their 
arrows, lances etc., provide themselves with some provisions 
and report ready to obey orders. What could Armijo do 
with an undisciplined army without any military training, 
without commissary resources, and without leaders to 
direct the men? He was a dwarf against a giant. Armijo was 
the imaginary hero of that epoch. Had he rashly rushed to 
give battle, it would have been equivalent to offer his troops 
as victims to the invading army; the result would have been 
a useless effusion of blood, offering himself unnecessarily 
to death. I was incapable of knowing m}'^ artillery men, did 
not know whether or not they could maneuvre nor do 
I remember who they were. The guerrillas which Armijo 
sent out to observe the advance of the enemy brought infor-^ 
mation back to him of how well provided and equipped they 
came and of the perfect order they kept in their march, 
being a well disciplined army. It was then he realized that 
he could not give them battle, nor capitulate without effusion 
of blood, either with the enemy or with his own people who 
had already attempted a revolt as will be seen in the follow- 
ing extract: — 

"In order to gratify my son, Eusebio, I wrote in 1906 part 
of my memoirs and thence I copy what follows: In August, 
1846, General Armijo ordered my father (Don Albino Chdcon 
Judge of the first instance) to call out the militia and Indian 
pueblos to go out and meet the American forces that were 
coming to take possession of New Mexico. My father 
asked him to excuse me because I was scarcely 13 years 
old; the general answered, 'no, sir, he is a cadet, and is, 
therefore, subject to the ordnances, and he is a military 
officer, and, therefore, must go to the front.' The disci- 
pline of that time will be judged by the historical episode of 
Chapultepec where the alumni of the military school, many 
01 my own age, died defending their country against the 
American troops in the taking of Mexico. 

"Armijo placed at my disposal a piece of light artillery with 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 433 

its equipage and artillery-men under my orders; we marched 
to Caiioncito de los Apaches, where 10,000 militia men 
must have been assembled, Pueblo Indians, and the com- 
panies of Santa Fe, Taos, El Bado, and the squadron of 
dragoons from Vera Cruz, under the command of Colonel 
Don Pedro Munoz (the same man who routed the canton at 
Pojoaque, and executed the provincial Governor, Gonzales.) 

"One day there was a disagreement among the militia men 
and, in a moment, we were ready to fight one an other. The 
mutiny was soon appeased, and we began to build barricades 
of branches of pine trees and elm. This work lasted three 
days, when, all of a sudden, Armijo ordered all the men to go 
back to their homes, saying that he would go to the front 
with the regular companies and the squadron of Vera Cruz. 
All now became confusion, each one took the horse he liked 
best and everything he could carry along. My father came 
in great hurry with the servant he had as his assistant, gave 
me a pair of pistols, made us each mount a horse, signaled 
us to a place upon the mesa where we should wait for him; 
ordered me not to allow any ooe to join us, and that, should 
any one insist on doing it to fire on him or them. There we 
stood watching the confusion of that multitude; some men 
overcome with fatigue arrived at the place we were standing 
and wished to join us, but following my father's instructions, 
I made them stand back threatening to fire on them. They 
retired for fear that I would keep my word. My father 
arrived at about dusk, he led us through the sierra, we 
reached Santa Fe at about three o'clock in the morning, and, 
at that hour, he sent me over to Chamisal, County of Taos, to 
the house of my aunt Inez, sister to my father. Before 
reaching Chimayo, a courier overtook us, to tell me to 
remain there in the house of an aunt of my father. 

"I hope this may be of some service to you, and I shall 
take satisfaction in honoring your wishes." 

Your Friend, 

Rafael Chacon." 

Before resuming the consideration of Emory's narration 
the author deems it proper to present to the reader the 
message sent to Governor Armijo by General Kearny from 



434 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Camp Bent. The reader has already been told by Emory 
that Captain Cook had been sent "day before yesterday to 
sound Armijo." It was Captain Cook, then, who took the 
following communication from Kearny to Armijo (the original 
is the possession of the author.) That famous mission reads 
thus: — 

Kearny's Secret Communication to Armijo. 

"Headquarters of the Army of the West," 
In Camp Upon the Arkansas, at Fort Bent, August 1, 1846. 
Sir: By the annexation of Texas to the United States, the 
the Rio Grande from its delta to its source, forms now the 
boundary line between them (the United States and Mexico) 
and I am coming by order of my Government to take posses- 
sion of the country over a part of which you are presiding as 
governor. I come as a friend and with the disposition and 
intention to consider all the Mexicans and other inhabitants 
as friends if they should remain quietly and peaceably in 
their homes attending to their own affairs. All such persons 
shall not be molested by any of those who are coming under 
my orders in their person nor in their property nor in their 
religion. I pledge myself to the fulfilment of these promises. 
"I come to this part of the United States with a strong 
military force, and a still stronger one is following us as a 
reinforcement. I have more troops than I need to overcome 
any opposition which you may be able to make against us, 
and for that reason and for the sake of humanity I advise 
you to submit to fate, and to consider me with the same 
sentiments of peace and friendship which I have and protest 
for you and those under your government. Should you Excel- 
lency do this it would be eminently favorable to your interest 
and that of all your countrymen, and you will receive their 
blessings and prayers. If, on the contrary, you should 
decide otherwise, if you should make up your mind to make 
resistance and to oppose us, with such troops as 3^ou may be 
able to raise against us, in that event, I notify you that the 
blood which may be shed, the sufferings and miseries that 
may follow, shall fall upon your head, and, instead of the 
blessings of your countrymen you will receive their curses? 
as I shall consider all those your Excellency may present 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 435 

against us armed, as enemies, and they shall be treated 
accordingly. 

"I am sending you this communication with Captain Cook 
of my regiment, and I recommend him as well as the small 
party of twelve dragoons, to your kindness and attention. 
With much respect I am 

Your Obedient Servant, 

S. W. Kearny, 
Colonel First Dragoons. 
To His Excellency, Governor and Commanding General, Don 
Manuel Armijo, Santa Pe." 

Emory's Narrative Continued -The Taking of Santa Fe. 

Since we have now given the reader a detailed and true 
account of Armijo's situation, related by an eye witness of 
unassailable reputation, we will keep on listening to the nar- 
rative of Lieutenant Emory which, for the purpose of this 
work, ends with the taking of Santa Fe. When we cut 
Emory's narrative, we left him on this side of the small town 
of San Miguel, or near the small town of Pecos, the place 
from which we now take up again his narrative. Emory 
continues: 

"As we approached the ruins of the ancient town of Pecos, 
a large fat fellow mounted on a mule, came towards us at 
full speed, and extending his hand to the general, congratu- 
lated him on the arrival of himself and the army. He said, 
with a roar of laughter 'Armijo and his troops have gone to 
hell, and the canon is clear.' This was the alcalde of the 
settlement. 

"August 18. — We were this morning 29 miles from Santa 
Fe. Reliable information from several sources had reached 
camp yesterday and the day before, that dissensions had 
arisen in Armijo's camp which had dispersed his army, and 
that he had fled to the south carrying all his artillery and 
one hundred dragoons with him. Not a hostile rifle or an 
arrow was now between the army and Santa Fe, the Capital 
of New Mexico, and the general determined to make his 
march in one day, and raise the United States flag over the 
palace before sundown. A small detachment was sent for- 
ward at day break, and, at six, the army followed. Four or 



436 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

five miles from Old Pecos the road leads into a caiion, with 
hills on each side from 1000 to 2000 feet above the road, in all 
cases within cannon shot, and this continues to a point about 
12 or 15 miles from Santa Fe. 

"Before reaching the canon, the noon halt was made in a 
valley covered with grama. Two Mexicans appeared ; one, the 
acting secretary (Nicolas Quintana) in search of the general. 

"The acting secretary brought a letter from Vigil, the 
lieutenant governor informing the general of Armijo's flight 
and of his readiness to receive him at Santa F6, and extend 
to him the hospitalities of the city. The day's march was 
very tedious and vexatious, and frequent halts had to be 
made to allow the artillery to come up. The head of the 
column arrived in sight of the town about three o'clock; it 
was six before the rear came up. Vigil and twenty or thirty 
of the people of the town received us at the palace and asked 
us to partake of some wine and brandy of domestic manu- 
facture. During the repast, and as the sun was setting, the 
United States flag was hoisted over the palace and a salute of 
thirteen guns was tired from the artillery planted on an 
eminence that overlooked the town. 

"The ceremony ended, we were invited to supper at Captain 

's, a Mexican gentleman formerly in the army. 

The dinner was served very much after the manner of a 
French dinner, one dish succeeding another in endless 
variety. 

"August 19 — This morning the general assembled all the 
people on the plaza and addressed them at some length. 
The next day the chief and head men of the Pueblo Indians 
came to give in their adhesion and express their great satis- 
faction at our arrival. 

"A message was received the same night from Armijo 
asking on what terms he would be received; but this proved 
to be only a ruse on his part to gain time on his flight to the 
south. Accounts go to show that his force at the canon was 
4,000 men, tolerably armed, and six pieces of artillery. Had 
he been possessed of the slightest qualifications of a general 
he might have given us infinite trouble. A priest arrived 
last night, the 29th, and brought the intelligence that, at the 
moment of Armijo's flight, Ugarte, a colonel in the regular 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 437 

service, was on his march at this side of El Paso del Norte 
with 500 men to support him. That, had he continued, he 
would have been enabled to rouse the whole southern dis- 
trict which is by far the wealthiest and most populous of the 
whole country. 

"The population of Santa Fe is from two to four thousand 
inhabitants. The houses are of adobe, in the Spanish style 
generally one story. They are forbidding in appearance 
from the outside, but nothing can exceed the comfort and 
convenience of the interior. The thick walls make them cool 
in summer and warm in winter. 

"Mr. Alvarez informed me that the importations from the 
United States varied very much, but that he thought they 
could average about half a million of dollars a year and no 
more. Most of the wagons go on to Chihuahua without 
breaking their loads. 

"New Mexico contains, according to the last census, made 
a few years since, 100,000 inhabitants. It is divided into 
three departments — the northern, the middle and the south- 
eastern. These are again sub-divided into counties, and the 
counties into townships. The lower or southern division is 
incomparably the richest, containing 48,000 inhabitants, 
many of whom are wealthy and possess much property." * 

Kearny's First Proclamation of Annexation in Santa Fe. 

Four days after the taking of the city, General Kearny 
issued his first statement in the form of a proclamation in 
which he declared that Mexico had provoked the war that 
existed between that nation and the United States; that 
oecause of his having taken possession of Santa Fe, Capital 
of the department of New Mexico, four days before, he de- 
clared his intention to retain New Mexico under the name 
of the Territory of New Mexico, with its original boundaries, 
as territory of the United States; that he came prepared to 
protect the rights of its inhabitants, their lives, property and 
their religion, and to punish the savage Indians that waged 

* Note -The dairy foregoing is a faithful reproduction of the 
English original except those portions which are of little impor- 
tance and not essential to the principal subject of the narrative, and 
thev were omitted.— The Author. 



438 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

war against them, advising those who had left their homes to 
return to their houses and submit to the authority of the 
government of the United States; that the government of the 
United States would give to the people of New Mexico, without 
delay, a free government identical with the government of the 
other states of the union, whereby the inhabitants of the Ter- 
ritory might elect their own legislature and decree their own 
laws; that the persons who occupied public positions would 
continue in their posts provided they would give their oath of 
fidelity, concluding his said proclamation with the following 
words: 'Those who may be found with arms, or conspiring 
against the United States shall be considered as traitors and 
treated as such; Don Manuel Armijo, the outgoing governor 
of this department has taken to flight; the undersigned has 
taken possession of New Mexico without tiring a shot or 
shedding a drop of blood, a circumstance that gives him sin- 
cere rejoicing, and for the time being he will be considered the 
governor of this Territory. ' 

"Given at Santa P6, Capital of the Territory of New Mexico, 
today, the 22nd of August, 1846, and the 71st year of the 
Independence of the United States. 

S. W. Kearny, 
Brigadier General." 

Kearny Visits Albuquerque and Tome. 

On the 2nd of September, General Kearny, accompanied 
by his staff, and a great number of Mexican volunteers, all 
mounted, left Santa ¥6 southward with the object of taking 
possession of the Rio Abajo, and to observe personally the 
foundation of certain rumors to the effect that in Albuquer- 
que, General Armijo was organizing an army to oppose the 
Americans. The rumor proved to be false, Kearny arrived 
in Albuquerque on the 5th, and he was tendered a royal 
reception, the officers of the place giving forthwith their oath 
of fidelity. Thence Kearny continued his march to Tom6 
where he was received graciously returning thence to Santa 
F6 on the 13th of the same month. On his return trip he was 
informed that the Navajoes and Yuta Indians kept on com- 
mitting depredations as usual; an information which 
prompted the establishment, by General Kearny, of two- 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 439 

temporary forts, one at Abiquid, and the other at Cebolleta, 
with troops under the command of Col. Jackson and Major 
Giipin respectively. 

Formal Appointment of Territorial Officers. 

On the 22nd of September, 1846, Kearny considering that 
the Territory was already incomplete submission, made the 
appointment of the necessary officials for the organization of 
a Territorial government in the following form: "Being 
duly authorized by the President of the United States of 
America, I do, by these presents, make the following 
appointment of officers for the government of New Mexico, as 
a Territory of the United States. The officers so appointed 
shall be respected and obeyed, as such: Charles Bent, for 
governor; Donaciano Vigil, for secretary of the Territory; 
Richard Dalam for marshal; Francis P. Blair, for United 
States district attorney; Charles Blumner, for treasurer; 
Eugene Leitensdorfer, for auditor of public accounts; Joah 
Houghton, Antonio Jose Otero, Charles Beaubien, for Jus- 
tices of the Supreme Court. 

"Given in Santa F^, the capital of the Territory of New 
Mexico, today, the 22nd day of September, 1846, and in the 
71st year of the Independence of the United States." 

S. W. Kearny, Brigadier General." 

With the appointment of officers General Kearny also pro- 
claimed the following decree. 

Declaration of Rights — As Declared by Brigadier General Kearny. Sept. 

22nd, 1846. 

"That the great and essential principals of liberty and of 
free government be recognized and established, it is declared, 
by these presents, 

First. — All political power is vested in, and belongs to the 
people. 

Second. — The people have the right to gather peaceably for 
the purpose of its common good, and to ask from those in 
power, by petition or presentation, the relief of their evils. 

Third. — Every man has a natural and inalienable right to 
worship God, according to the dictates of his own con- 
science, no one will ever be damaged, molested, or prevented 



440 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

from professing his religion, if he does not prevent others 
from professing theirs; all Christian churches shall be pro- 
tected, and none oppressed, and no one shall, on account of 
his religious opinions, lose his right to any office of honor, 
trust and profit. 

Fourth. — The courts of justice shall be open to every per- 
son; a just remedy shall be given for every injury to persons 
or property; right and justice shall be administered without 
subordination, without denial, without delay, and private 
property shall not be taken for public service without just 
compensation. 

Fifth. — The right of trial by jury shall remain inviolable. 

Sixth. — In all criminal cases the defendant shall have the 
right of being heard by himself, or by his attorney, to ask 
for the nature and cause of the accusation, to proceed with 
compulsion for the appearance of the witnesses in his favor, 
to be confronted with the witnesses who may depose against 
him, and to the end that the verdict of a jury of his country 
be brief. 

Seventh. — The defendant shall not be obliged to give testi- 
mony against himself, or to be deprived of his liberty, or 
property, except by the verdict rendered by a jury and the 
law of the country. 

Eighth. — No person, after having been declared not guilty 
by a jury, shall be tried again for the same offense. 

Ninth Any accused person may be set free under bail, 

giving sufficient securities, except for capital offenses when 
the proofs of the crime are evident, and the act of habeas 
corpus shall not be suspended except where public security 
may require it in cases of a rebellion or an invasion. 

Tenth No excessive bails shall be asked of the accused 

to be be set free, nor shall any exorbitant tines be imposed, 
nor shall any cruel or unusual punishment be inflicted. 

Eleventh. — The people shall be secure in their persons, 
papers, houses and effects from every unreasonable search 
or seizure, and no process of search or seizure shall be issued 
without there being probable cause of guilt under oath. 

Twelfth. — The free intercourse of ideas and opinions is one 
of the inviolable rights of free men, and every person may 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 441 

frefily speak, write, or print upon any matter, being respon- 
sible for the abuses of this hberty. 

Thirteenth. — No vicar, priest, preacher of the gospel, nor 
teacher of any religious denomination, shall be obliged to 
take arms, or to serve in juries, work on roads, nor to 
perform any military service. 

Given at the Government House, in Santa Fe in the Terri- 
tory of New Mexico by Brigadier General Stephen W. 
Kearny, in virtue of the power conferred on him by the 
Government of the United States, on this 22nd day of Sep- 
tember in the year of Our Lord, 1846." 

S. W. Kearny. 
Brigadier General U. S. A." 

The publication of the proclamation and the declaration of 
rights were followed by the taking of the oath of allegiance 
by all the appointed officers and many others who, having 
received previous notice, came to the Capital with that object. 
What follows is taken from the "Resefia Hist6rica-Sin6ptica 
de la Guerra Mexico-Americana" of this author. 

Kearny Starts for California — Price and Doniphan to Proceed to Old 
Mexico — Meets Kit Carson. 

After the territorial organization, Kearny began his pre- 
parations to continue his march, in accordance with his 
instructions, and on the 25th, of the same month com- 
menced his march to California. When he had marched for 
about 209 miles south of Santa Fe, he met Kit Carson at 
Socorro, who was coming from California accompanied by an 
escort bringing news from Freemont to the effect that the 
conquest of California was already a fact. Before leaving 
Santa Fe, General Kearny had given orders that he be 
followed as far as California by a regiment of Mormons of 
the forces brought by Col. Sterling Price and that Colonel 
Doniphan should march to Chihuahua with his division, the 
place where he should meet General Wood, commander in 
chief of the Army of the Center. From Socorro, General 
Kearny continued his march taking Kit Carson with him and 
ordering the return of almost all his force to Santa F6. 



442 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Arrival of Colonel Price — Treaty With the Navajoes. 

Colonel Price arrived in Santa Fe, on October 1st, and on 
the 17th of the same month he placed the Mormon battalion 
in March, under Lieutenant Smith, to California, in accord- 
ance with the orders of General Kearny, Meanwhile Gener- 
al Kearny had sent a courier to Santa Fe with instructions 
that before marching on to Chihuahua, Doniphan should 
make an expedition to the land of the Navajoes with the 
object of pacifying them, a thing Doniphan executed with 
such good success that he celebrated a treaty of peace with 
the chiefs of the tribe. 

Colonel Doniphan Starts for Chihuahua — Battle of Brazito. 

At last towards the middle of December, Colonel Doni- 
phan, set out on his march to Chihuahua with a force of 900 
men (Mexican historians say they were 800) which was 
formed in three divisions to which a company of volunteers, 
which had been formed at Santa F6 under command of Capt. 
Hudson, was joined at Dona Ana. The army having left 
Dona Ana, and traveled about thirty miles, on reaching the 
placed termed "El Brazito," on the 25th of December, met a 
detachment of Mexican infantry and cavalry troops under 
Captain Ponce de Leon composed of 500 men. The two met 
in battle in which Doniphan came out victorious. The loss 
on the Mexican side, according to American historians, 
reached up to 70 killed, and a hundred or more wounded, 
and live prisoners. Mexican historians do not call that 
encounter a battle, but simply a skirmish, and they declare 
that Ponce de Leon, his ammunition having given out, was 
able to effect his retreat in a very orderly manner without 
lamenting any serious losses. On the American side the loss 
was one soldier killed, and a few wounded that is admitted. 
Doniphan continued his march without encountering any 
further obstacles and reached El Paso del Norte (Ciudad 
Juarez) on the 27th of December, staying in camp at the 
place for nearly two months and continuing again his march 
to Chihuahua towards the latter part of February, 1847. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 443 

Battle of Rancho de Sacramento — The Taking of Chihuahua. 

Doniphan did not meet any opposition until he reached, 
February 28, a point called "Rancho de Sacramento," a place 
where he came in sight of the Mexican forces which came to 
meet him. Sacramento was at a very short distance from 
Chihuahua. The Mexican army consisted of about 4,000 men, 
with Generals Prias. Conde, Heredias and Ugarte at the head. 
A desperate battle ensued, the American army being again 
victorious, and with the road open for the march to Chihua- 
hua, that city was taken on the first of March, 1847. Doniphan 
remained at Chihuahua for nearly two months, going thence 
to join his forces with Taylor's army who was at Monterey. 

Few military marches are recorded in history that may be 
compared with the marches of Kearny and Doniphan, from 
Missouri to California and from Santa Fe to Chihuahua,, 
respectively, and certainly, as regards intrepidity and daring, 
none of the generals of the other divisions can be compared 
with them. Whether that war was just or unjust, the impar- 
tial observer cannot but admire the valor of sucli fearless 
generals. * 

Election of Senators Under the Mexican Government 1845-6 — Urguides 
Elected. 

Under the official instructions, or decree, issued by the 
"Ministro de Relaciones Exteriores" (Secretary of State) the 
departmental assemblies of Chihuahua, New Mexico and 
Durango were directed to order an election, in their respec- 
tive departments, in May, 1845, for a senator to fill the 
vacancy caused by the death of Senator Dn. Sebastian Cama- 
cho. The assembly of New Mexico at once held said election, 
on the 9th day of May, 1845, and elected Don Juan Nepomu- 
ceno Urguides, f which goes to show, although the official 

* Read's Resefia Historica, Sinop. de la Guerra Mexico-Americana. 

t "Tornado en consideraci6n se procedio A la votacion resultando 
electo por la maj'oria del sufrag-io el Sr. Licenciado Don Juan Nepo- 
muceno Urguides, se aprov6 dlio. nombramiento acordando al raismo 
tiempo el remitir la acta a la Cdmara de Senadores etc.'" — Journal of 
May 9, 1845, p. 1. 



444 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

records do not so state, that the Mexican Congress had given 
New Mexico the same rights enjoyed by the federal states of 
the republic. 

Another and Last Election for Senators — 1845. 

Again, and under the same authority, another election for 
senators was had, this time by the people in October, 1845, 
resulting in the election of Bishop Dn. N, Madrid, Marcelino 
Castaneda, Rev. Bonilla Arcillga, on behalf of the agricul- 
tural classes and Jos6 Escalante, Nepomuceno Urguides, 
Antonio Pescador, on behalf of the builders and N. Flores, 
M. Zubiran, I. Mijures, F. Ramirez, P. Olivas, L. Sisqueiros 
and A. Ochoa on behalf of the mining and farming indus- 
tries.* As the occupation of New Mexico by the American 
army took place in August of that year, whatever was the 
ultimate result of these last two elections of senators is not 
known, nor is it of any consequence to us now. 

Last Election Under Mexican Rule. 

Before proceeding to give the history of the results of the 
invasion of New Mexico by the American army, I deemed it 
proper to inform the reader of the last election held in New 
Mexico under the Mexican government (see picture of the 
originalcertificateof saidelectioninanotherpartof this book). 
On the 7th day of October, 1845, (ten months prior to Kearny's 
entry into Santa Fe) the "Colegio Electoral" (Electoral Col- 
lege) met in Santa Fe and proceeded to the election of one 
delegate to (Diputado) and one proxy (Suplente) the 
National Congress, and the live regular members and 
three proxies (Suplentes) of the departmental assembly. The 
result was the election of Don Tomds Chavez y Castillo as 
delegate and Don Vicente Sanchez Vergara as proxy to the 
congress (or Colegio General) in Mexico, and Rev. Antonio 
Jose Martinez, Don Tomas Ortiz, Don Juan Perea, Don Juan 
Crist6val Armijo and Don Felipe Sena as the regular mem- 
bers of the "Asamblea"" and Don Serafin Ramirez, Don 
Vicente Martinez and Don Santiago Armijo as proxies 

* Journal of the Assembly of Oct. 1, 1846, pp. 30-L 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 445 

(Suplentes).* These were, then, with Governor Armijo and 
Secretary Juan B Vigil, the principal officials in New Mex- 
ico at the time of the change of flags, August, 1846. 

An Anti-Anrierican Pronouncement. 

On December 12th, 1846, when Generals Kearny and 
Doniphan were in California, and Mexico respectively as 
already said, the citizens Diego Archuleta of Rio Arriba, and 
Tomds Ortiz and Jose Manuel Gallegos of Santa Pe, initiated 
a movement with revolutionary tendencies. Their plan was, 
neither more nor less than the assassination on the 19th of 
the same month, of all the Americans that might be found 
in New Mexico. That movement was the sequel to previous 
arrangements and dispositions which had been had and 
agreed to among several Mexican citizens residing at Las 
Vegas, Mora and Taos. The author desires to say, in the 
first place, that neither the said citizens, Archuleta, Ortiz 
and Gallegos, nor" those who were engaged with them in the 
conspiracy should be considered traitors, as some histori- 
ans have declared them because none of the so-called 
traitors had given to the American government the oath of 
allegiance; and as both nations were in open war, those men, 
and the ones who followed them, should be admired for their 
patriotism. Let us now resume our narrative of the con- 
spiracy. On the 16th of the month of December, the said 
gentlemen had their last meeting at midnight in the Capital 
of New Mexico, in which they agreed to postpone the rebel- 
lion until the 24th of December, in order thus to be enabled 
the better to organize their forces clandestinely at all the 
said points. The conspiracy might perhaps have been real- 
ized, had not Governor Bent discovered it on the 21st of the 
same month of December, having, in consequence caused 
the arrest of many persons who, it turned out were innocent, 

* "Lista de los Ind'vos nombrados per el Coleg'io Electoral en el 
presente aiio.'"— Diputado al Coleg-io Gral. D. Tomds Chavez y 
Castillo; Suplente, Vicente Sanchez Verg-ara; individuos para la E. 
Asamblea, propietarios, Presvitero D. Antonio .Jos^ Martinez, D. 
Tomas Ortiz, D. Juan Perea, D. Juan Cristoval Armijo, D. Felipe 
Sena. Suplentes, D. Serafin Ramirez, D. Vicente Martinez, D. San- 
tiago Armijo. Santa F^. Octubre 7 de 1845." Original in my posses- 
sion.— The Author. 



446 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

the head-chiefs Ortiz and Archuleta escaping. The seed of 
dissatisfaction, however, continued bearing fruit at Taos, 
Mora, and Las Vegas. As soon as it was known in those 
places that the plan had been discovered, in Santa Fe, they 
delayed the day of assault until the 19th of January, 1847. 

Bent Starts for Taos and is Assassinated — With Him Others Die — 
Father Martinez Saves an American and the Families of the Mur- 
dered Men. 

Governor Bent left Santa Pe for Taos on January the 14th, 
1847, to visit his family, believing that everything had been 
appeased with the discovery he had made of the conspiracy. 
On the 19th of that month, while Bent was in his house 
sleeping, at midnight, the Taos Indians made the assault, 
^nd some few of the Mexicans who had remained as yet, 
Mexican citizens, laid a siege to the house of the sheriff, 
Stephen Lee, murdering him and DonCornelio Vigil, prefect 
of the place. Those murders consummated, the gang of 
murderers went to the house of Bent, and there murdered 
him (Bent) and then murdered Pablo Jaramillo and Narciso 
Baubien. Kit Carson, St. Vrain and others might also have 
been murdered had they not been away from Taos on that 
fated night. There was in Taos at the time a foreigner whom 
they called "General" Lee, a brother of the murdered sher- 
iff, who was able to escape by running to Pather Martinez's 
house, where he found hospitable shelter and ample protec- 
tion. "General" Lee was followed by the families of ttie 
other murdered Americans, all placing themselves under the 
protection of Pather Martinez. It is nothing but just to 
bear testimony to the humanitarian action of Padre Mar- 
tinez, tirst, because a man is worthy of praise who, in such 
critical moments, gives shelter to the persecuted, though in 
so doing, he might have to expose his life; and in the second 
place, because many writers, with an inborn prejudice, have 
attempted to stain the name of Padre Martinez, charging 
him with being one of the movers of the vile and cowardly 
attack. 

Not satisfied with having shed so much innocent blood, 
they sent out another gang, on the same night, to Arroyo 
Hondo, a town near Taos, where they assaulted and killed 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 447 

Simon Turley, Turbush Hatfield, Tolque, Roberts, Mar- 
shall, Austin and John Albert. Those Americans were all 
together at a house from which they could defend them- 
selves for two days, killing, during the fray, five Indians, but 
they were all killed with the exception of one (whose name is 
not known) who, though wounded, was able to make good his 
escape. 

Murders at Mora and Las Vegas. 

On the same day, the 19th, the Messrs. Waldo, Cavanaugh, 
Praett, Colver, Noyes, Howard and Head were murdered at 
Mora in the vilest and most cowardly manner. The last two 
happened to be in Mora by mere chance on that night; they 
had gone there on a business trip, as merchants. It is said 
that at Las Vegas several men were killed, but there is no 
authentic authority to confirm that report; it is known, how- 
ever, that, had not Don .Tuan de Dios Maes, the alcalde of the 
place, given timely protection to the Americans of the place, 
several of them would have been killed.* 

Measures are Taken by Colonel Geran St. Vrain and Colonel Price for 
the Punishment ot the Rebels — Surrender of the Taos Indians and 
Execution of Their Chief. 

A day after the assaults at Taos, Mora and Las Vegas, all 
that had occurred in those places was known in Santa Fe by 
means of speedy couriers. Colonel Ceran St. Vrain at once 
organized in Santa Fe, January 23rd, 1848, a volunteer com- 
pany, and left the same day with Captain Angney, who com- 
manded a batallion of regular soldiers, making in all a total of 
350 troop men, with Colonel Sterling Price in command. 

Battle of Santa Cruz. 
The next day the army met at Santa Cruz an armed force 
under the command of the chieftains, Montoya, Chdvez and 
Tafoya. The insurgents gave battle to Price, but were 
routed with 36 killed, while the Americans had two killed 
and several wounded. 

Fight at Embudo. 
Colonel Price continued thence his march without any 
obstruction as far as Canon del Embudo, where his march 
^Bancroft Ariz, and N. Mex. 



448 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

was interrupted by another force of insurgents which Price 
also defeated after a short struggle, and then continued his 
march on to Taos at a rapid pace. 

The American Army Arrives at Taos — Defeat and Surrender of the 
Enemy. 

On February 3rd, Price arrived at the town of Fernandez 
de Taos v;ith the array, where he learned that the insurgents 
were intrenched in the church of the Pueblo of Taos, which 
is at a short distance from Fernandez. Price reconnoitered 
the fortification and on the next day assaulted it with his 
army. The Indians fought with desperation and heroism, 
but had finally to surrender to the superiority of the Amer- 
ican arms which had already bored holes on the walls of the 
church, killed 150 Indians and wounded a larger number of 
them. On the side of the Americans there were seven dead, 
46 wounded, among the dead, one officer. Price would not 
accept the surrender of the Indians unless their chief, called 
Tomds, and the other chiefs were delivered to him, a requisi- 
tion the Indians relucantly obeyed delivering said chiefs who 
were hung on the seventh of said month. This ended the 
revolution at Taos. 

Assault and Punishment of the Mora Insurrectos by Captain Mendley 
Who is Killed in Battle — -Mendley is Succeeded by Morin. 

On the last day of January, 1948, Captain Hendley, with 80 
men, attacked the insurgents in the town of Mora. In the 
fray, himself and two soldiers were killed, and the force 
retired to renew the attack on the next day, a thing Captain 
Morin did, on the first of February, defeating the insurgents 
and obliging them to abandon the town. Morin next destroyed 
the greater part of the houses of residence, stables and 
corrals, and returned to Las Vegas. 

That was the last attempt made against the American gov- 
ernment, the Territory being consequently left in a state of 
perfect pacification, and by virtue of the treaty signed at the 
City of Guadalupe Hidalgo, on the 2nd of February, 1848, 
between Mexico and the United States, and ratified by the 
American government on March 1st, and by the Mexican 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 449 

government May 25th of the same year became, permanently 
and forever, a part of the American union. 

Historical California — Letter From Roubideaux. 

A little before June, 1848, a stranger formerly residing in 
New Mexico, called Louis Roubideaux had gone to California, 
taking with him his wife who was a New Mexican lady. The 
reasons of his moving to California had their origin in the 
disgusts and difficulties he had with Charles Bent, at Taos, 
the place of residence of said Roubideaux. Prom Jorupa, 
California, he wrote a letter to Don Manuel Alvarez, which 
forms, in part, an important paragraph of the history of the 
war between Mexico and the United States, relating inci- 
dents, which so far as this author knows, have never been 
mentioned in history, and, as said letter is in the possession 
of the author, it is indispensable to consign to history what 
is therein related. The letter reads as follows: 

Cahfornia, May 1st, 1848. 
"Sr. D. Manuel Alvarez: 

''My dear sir and friend, whom I esteem: — I received the 
two letters you wrote me. In the tirst you relate the insur- 
rection of New Mexico, and, as it appears, it has been terrible 
on account of the many murders that were committed by 
those natives and Indians. Bat in the end those who were 
the cause will receive condign punishment. From the begin- 
ning of hostilities between the two nations I was a prisoner 
of war. On the 25th of September, 1846, we met in my house 
and my neighbor's, Don Benjamin Wilson's, (18 strangers) to 
defend ourselves at any cost, because the shout of insurrec- 
tion had already resounded everywhere, and rumor was that 
they would spare not the life of any stranger. The day after 
our meeting we went to the ranch of Chino which is 6 leagues 
distant from my house; Don Juan Rowland was one of our 
warriors, and also four or five other additional strangers 
whom we met at said ranch. Our intention was to continue 
as far as the town of Los Angeles, if possible, in order to 
join the small American force which was stationed there. 
But the enemy did not relish this re-union; we were attacked 
the next day, that is, on the 27th of September, by a force 



450 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

superior to ours to which we had to surrender at discretion 
after a struggle of an hour. 

"The enemy assaulted the house in which we were fortified 
with so much furor and valor that, in the twinkling of an 
eye, as they say, set it on fire on every side with so much 
celerity, that we had no alternative but to surrender or be 
burned alive. We did that to our regret. From that moment 
I lost my liberty. 

"The enemy numbered 200 men; we, with little ammunition 
and victuals, our opponents with plenty of war material, and 
the camp was theirs. We were then presented to the general, 
D Jose Ma. Flores, a military officer of the Mexican army, a 
man of superior attainments andcoui-age, although many say 
he is a coward and a tyrant; but, according to my way of 
seeing, I believe in good faith, that he has during the whole 
period of the insurrection, acted with prudence, and that he 
has behaved as a good soldier. It seems to me that every 
man who embraces the military calling seeks after a name 
and riches, etc., etc. 

"This same Flores whom I have just praised had made up 
his mind to send us as far as the Capital of Mexico, for the 
purpose of giving more weight to his exploits, or still better, 
to the drafts he had issued upon the government. But every- 
thing was frustrated, as you will see further on. There was, 
at the time, a party which always spied him, embarrassed 
his plans, and opposed, when necessary his individual views. 
This same party, realizing that our departure was against 
the general interest of the Californias, and for fear also of 
reprisals from the Americans, formed an opposition against 
him and continued the plan, with the aid of us, the prisoners, 
that is, with our money, of turning him down from the posi- 
tion, a thing that happened on the eve of the day when we 
were about to start for the Capital. This intrigue relieved 
us from a very long walk, and perhaps saved our lives. 
Sometime after, he was allowed to again assume the com- 
mand, but on condition that the prisoners would not have to 
go out of California. Before this happened, we had received 
orders to prepare to go out of the Territory, and that we 
should make some determination of our property as well as 
of our families. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 451 

"This command fell upon US, like a bolt of lightning from 
heaven. A very great sorrovi' took hold of us all, so much 
so, that Don Juan Rowland frequently said 'cut off a leg from 
me and let me stay with my familly." But his clamor w^as 
useless, no heart was softened in our behalf; it was the same 
as if we had spoken to the rocks; for my part I always 
remembered the poor Texans and their sufferings who went 
afoot from New Mexico to the Capital (Mexico City) the 
half of whom died on the road, such being my information, 
as much on account of the ill treatment they received, as for 
lack of food. But fortune, or rather the Supreme Being, 
who always remembers his good children, when He is 
implored, determined otherwise and turned to naught the 
calculations of the ambitious who thirst after fame and 
riches at the cost of human life and blood. 

"General Kearny arrived here in November or December, 
with an escort of 100 dragoons; but the reception he had here 
was not as good as the one he had in New Mexico. For 
before he could join the American force that was at San 
Diego, a seaport of Upper California, he was attacked by the 
cavalry from here, which is doubtless the best in all the 
Mexican Republic, since they perform wonders on horse- 
back. The general lost 22 men killed in the camp of honor, 
and as many wounded, he, the general himself, receiving a 
slight wound, and my brother, Don Antonio, who was by 
the side of the interpreter got also a lance thrust in the hip, 
but he escaped alive. After a few days, the general had 
the happiness to join the force that was at San Diego under 
command of Commodore Stockton; and today they both 
went out together at the head of 600 men, nearly all of them 
sailors, and, by the way, all on foot. They fought two battles 
on the 8th, and 9th, of January, 1849, near the City of Los 
Angeles, and in both tights they conquered the enemy and 
entered the said city without any opposition on the 10th of 
the same month. My captivity lasted till then. This was 
enough for the enemy to disperse, and might not show up 
again for action. A few of them gathered about the second 
chief, Don Andres Pico (Flores having retired for fear of an 
intrigue of his own countrymen who Wanted to deliver him 
up to the enemy, believing that in this way they could capture 



452 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OP NEW MEXICO. 

the good will of the conqueror,) only to ask for a treaty of 
peace which was granted them by Colonel Freemont, in quite 
an honorable manner for the sons of the country. 
I am your most obedient servant, 

L. ROBIDKAUX." 

In conclusion of this chapter it must be stated, that the 
government of the United States, though it could have taken 
the Provinces of New Mexico and California without any pecu- 
niary remuneration, consented, nevertheless, in giving the 
Mexican government, and, in etfect, gave it, the sum of 
$15,000,000.00. 



CHAPTER VIL 



Price Assumes Gommand of the Government — The People are Divided 
Into Factions — The Convention Meets and Adopts a Petition to 
Congress Asking for a Territorial Government — Visit of Cure 
Ortiz With the Object of Repatriating Mexicans —Formal Organi- 
zation of the Two Opposing Parties— Organization of State Gov- 
ernment — Election of Senators — Protest of Governor Monroe — 
Alvarez Receives Bad News — The Territorial Government is 
Organized — The Military Power Yields to the Civil — First Delegate 
in Congress. 

1848-1852 



During the month of October, 1847, Colonel Price assumed 
the command of the government, as military governor, the 
change causing the people to divide in two factions; one con- 
demning Price, and insisting on the continuance of the civil 
government, the other sustaining Price in his ai-rogance. 
This gave rise to the introduction of politics as practiced in 
the United States, that is, the sons of Nev^ Mexico commenced 
to feel the magnitude of the responsibility that befalls upon 
a citizen in a nation whose government is based on popular 
opinion. The practice also originated then of using corrup- 
tion in the investment of the political powers. The burning 
question of that epoch was thesupremacy of power which was 
in an obstinate mannerdisputed among the two factions, that 
is, by the pro-slavery and anti-slavery parties. This chaotic 
condition lasted until August, 1848, when Senator Thomas 
H. Benton who wrote a letter from Washington to the enemies 
of Price urging upon them the necessity of organizing them- 
selves into a civil government. At that period Colonel J. M. 
Washington was the military governor, and he opposed, with 
all the prestige of his military power, the organization of a 
territorial government. At the same time, Don Donaciano 
Vigil, who had been appointed by Price as civil governor, 
though he was such only in name, issued a proclamation 






454 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

summoning a convention with the object of organizing a civil 
or territorial government according to Benton's suggestions. 

A Convention Meets and Adopts a Memorial to Congress Asking for 
a Territorial Covernment. 
On the 10th of October, 1848, in accordance with the procla- 
mation of Governor Vigil, a convention met in Santa F6 with 
Father Antonio Jose Martinez, as president, and J. M. 
Giddings, as secretary. The members of said convention 
were, the said Antonio Jos6 Martinez, Elias P. West, Antonio 
Saenz, Juan Perea, Donaciano Vigil, Santiago Archuleta, 
Francisco Sarracino, (who had been governor under the 
Mexican government), Gregorio Vigil, Jos^ Pley, James 
Quinn, Ramon Luna, Carlos Beaubien, and Manuel A. Otero. 
The labors of said convention were limited to the approval of 
the following memorial: 

Memorial to Congress. 

"Petition to Congress made by New Mexico, through its 
inhabitants in convention assembled: 

"We, the people of New Mexico, respectfully ask of Con- 
gress that we be given a civil territorial government without 
delay. 

"We respectfully ask of Congress the establishment of a 
government of a purely civil character. 

"We respectfully^ submit that the organic law and the 
statute law proclaimed under military order on September 
22, 1846, with some changes are not acceptable. 

"We recommend that the following offices be occupied by 
persons appointed by the President with the co-operation and 
consent of the senate, to-wit: Governor, secretary of gov- 
ernment, judges. United States attorney and marshal. 

"We wish to be given the right of appeal from the courts 
of the territory to the supreme court of the United States. 

"We respectfully, but firmly, protest against the dismem- 
berment of our territory in favor of Texas or by any other 
cause. 

"We do not wish domestic slavery within our confines, and 
we ask the protection cf Congress, against the introduction of 
slavery into the territory until we are formed into a state. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 455 

"We ask authority to elect our local legislature in accor- 
dance with what is prescribed by the law of New Mexico, of 
Sept. 22, 1846, which will remain subject to the approval of 
congress. 

"We ask to be represented in congress by a delegate or 
deputy. 

"As New Mexico has a population of from 75,000 to 100,000 
inhabitants we believe that what we ask is reasonable, and 
we entertain the hope that congress will decree to us laws 
as liberal as those decreed for other territories. 

"These signatures of all the persons named follow below 
with date of "Santa Fe, October 1 1, 1848." Congress denied 
the petition at tirst but granted afterwards what was asked. 

First Legislature Under Military Authority. 

It should be remarked to the reader that, in the year 1847, 
a legislature had already been organized, on the 6th of 
December of that year, under military government with the 
following members: Antonio Sandoval, president; Henry 
Henrie, secretary; James Hubbell, porter; Jose Francisco 
Baca y Terros; Jose Andres Sandoval; Juan TuUis; Nicolds 
Lucero; Pascual Martinez; Juan (3tero y Chavez; all these 
gentlemen being the members of the Council; the members 
of the House being: William C. Angney, president; James 
Giddings, secretary; E. J. Vaughn, porter; Manuel Alvdrez, 
Antonio Martinez, Tom^s C. de Baca, Jesiis Sandoval, Miguel 
Sanchez, Antonio Saenz, Levi J. Keithly, Jose Ramon Vigil, 
Antonio Jose Manzanares, Mariano Lucero, Jose Martinez, 
George Gold, Antonio Jose Ortiz, Juan Perea, Rafael Armijo 
y Maestas, William Skinner, Juan Cruz Baca, Juan Cristo- 
val Chavez, Rafael Luna, and Juan Sanchez y Carillo. 

New Military Commandant — A New Convention is Held — A Form of 
Government is Adopted and a Delegate to Congress Elected^ 
Cure Ortiz and Repatriation of Mexicans. 

At the beginning of 1849, Colonel Washington being absent 
from New Mexico, the command fell upon the hands of 
Colonel Beall, who was in sympathy with the party that 
favored the form of civil government. Beall called a conven- 



456 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

tion similar to that which met the year previous, as has been 
said in the foregoing paragraph, with the object ot forming 
a territorial government. The said convention was held in 
September of that year, and another memorial was adopted 
analagous to that of the convention of 1848, electing, forth- 
with, Hugh C. Smith as delegate to Congress. The next 
year, 1850, Smith appeared in Congress, at Washington, but 
was refused admission to the House of Representatives. Let 
us now treat about the coming of a commissioner from the 
Mexican government. 

Visit of Cure Ortiz for the Repatriation of the Mexicans. 

It is indispensable, before entering upon the details of 
what happened, before 1850, to narrate the efforts made by 
the Mexican government to repatriate all the sons of New 
Mexico who desired to go and live under the Mexican flag, 
in accordance with w^hat was stipulated in the treaty signed 
on the 2nd of February, 1848, in the city of Guadalupe 
Hidalgo, by which treaty the Mexican government was 
allowed to put in practice said endeavors. Accordingly, in 
April 1849, the cure, Dun Ramon Ortiz, came here as the 
emissary of the Mexican government, offering the New Mex- 
icans lands and all accoutrements necessary for agriculture, 
transportation for their families and many other conve- 
niences. The cur^, Ortiz, had already obtained the consent 
of many families, but, as the methods he employed were not 
acceptable to the governor of New Mexico, he was forbidden 
to continue in the discharge of his commission returning in 
May of that year to Mexico without having obtained any 
results whatsoever.* Below v:e give the correspondence, 
between said cure Ortiz and Don Doniciano Vigil, Secretary 
of the Territory. The correspondence follows: 

"Santa Fe, April 29, 1849. 
"Mr. Commissioner, Cure Ramon Ortiz: 

"Sir: His Excellency, the governor, does not permit you 
to visit, personally, the different points of this Territory 
wuth the end of manifesting to its inhabitants your com- 
mission; for, according to advices received from El Vado, 

*Pino Not. Hist. pp. 93 to 98. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 457 

you have overstepped your official duties by overadvancing 
your indications, thereby producing unrest; I am, therefore, 
directed by His Excellency to tell you to suspend your trip, 
returning forthwith to this city, from v^^iich, as the center 
of power, you may discharge your duties with the integrity 
you manifest and according to your instructions. I am sir, 
very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

DoNACiANO Vigil, 

Secretary of the Territory.'" 

Ortiz to Vigil. 

"Pojoaque, April 29th, 1849. 
"Mr. Secretary of Government, Donaciano Vigil. 
"Sir: — I am in recept of your note of today in which you 
communicate to me the order of His Excellency, the gov- 
ernor, prohibiting my personal visit to the towns of this 
territory with the object of manifesting to its inhabitants the 
end of my commission, t say that I will obey it. In regard 
to the abuses you make reference to, in your note as 
received from El Vado, you can assure His Excellency that 
they are absolutely false, for neither individually, nor, much 
less, as an agent of the Mexican government, shall I fail to 
keep the regards due the legitimate government of the 
country wherein I am sojourning, as my government desires 
to preserve, by all means possible, the good understanding 
which it has today with that of the United States, and I make 
vows to the effect that such an understanding may not be 
altered. 

I am very respectfully your obedient servant, 

Ramon Ortiz." 

Ortiz to Vigil. 

"Santa Fe, April 30, 1849. 
"Mr. Secretary of Government, Donaciano Vigil. 
"Sir — Be pleased to manifest to His Excellency, the gov- 
ernor of the Territory, that, in compliance with his orders, 
one, a written order, the other, a verbal one, which His 
Excellency was pleased to give me, by reason of the move- 
ments of unrest that were noticed, I have suspended, from 
the moment in which I received the first one, my practice of 



458 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

presenting myself personally in the towns, in order to make 
by myself the enlistment of the inhabitants of the country 
that voluntarily wished to emigrate to the Mexican Republic. 
In order to comply as well with the second order, I sent 
yesterday at once couriers to all the towns where I had 
commissioners, that they might suspend immediately any 
proceedings in the matter. I, sir, as the agent of the gov- 
ernment friendly to the American nation, and which today 
has the best of an understanding with it, sincerely wish to 
contribute with whatever is in my power, to the preservation 
of good order within its dominions, and, to this end, I hope 
that your Excellency will be pleased to tell me officially the 
way or means by which I may avail myself in the Territory 
in order to comply with those duties I took upon myself 
when I accepted the mission with which the government of 
Mexico was pleased to honor me. 

I am, sir, yours attentively, 

Ramon Ortiz." 

Vigil to Ortiz. 

"Santa Fe, May 1st, 1849. 
"Mr. Commissioner Ramon Ortiz. 
"Sir: — His Excellency, the governor, has informed himself 
of the contents of your attentive note of yesterday in which 
you state that you have suspended your march to all the 
points and places in the Territory, and that you have dis- 
patched couriers to your agents ordering them to cease their 
functions, offering at the same time your cooperation to 
pacify the unrest which had commenced to appear at El 
Vado; and I am directed to tell you in reply, that His Excel- 
lency is aware of your deference to the notices sent you, 
thanking you for you good desires in contributing to the 
support of the government; but, that, as the measures neces- 
sary to check the disorder have already been dictated, he 
reserves for -another occasion the use of your influence if 
necessary. 

i am, sir, very respectfully your obedient servant. 

DoNACiANO Vigil, 
Secretary of theTerritory." 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 459 

Ortiz to Vigil. 

"Santa Barbara de Cile, N. M., May 5th, 1849. 
"Mr. Secretary of Government, Donaciano Vigil. 

Sir: — Please inform His Excellency, the governor of the 
Territory that, in full accordance with the statements I 
made to him in my last verbal conference, I have concluded 
to undertake my journey back to the Republic of Mexico, on 
thesixth inst.,a thing I beg to make His Excellency acquainted 
with. I am sir, your most affectedly, 

Ramon Ortiz." 

Formal Organization of the Opposing Parties. 

Out of so much uncertainty produced by the complicated 
political condition, the organization of two militant political 
parties came as a result. Both were well organized and 
prepared for a decisive campaign, the one favoring the im- 
mediate organization of a territorial government, the other 
adhering to the continuation of the military government. 
Precisely at the moment in which the two parties were or- 
ganizing, commissioners came from Texas claiming juris- 
diction over New Mexico which resulted in the union of the 
said two parties into a single one with the determination of 
forming a state government. 

Organization of a State Government — Election of State Officials. 

In accordance with what was agreed to by the two parties, 
and, pursuant to a previous call, in May, 1850, a constitutional 
convention met in Santa Fe, and authorized Governor Monroe 
to issue a proclamation for an election of state officers. 
Governor Monroe issued the proclamation on the 28th, of 
that month for the election of a governor, a lieutenant 
governor, two representatives, and one senator to the Nat- 
ional Congress, and for members of the local legislature. 
The election of said officers was, together with the constitu- 
tion to be submitted to the Congress of the United States; 
and the state officers were not to enter upon the discharge 
of their duties until authorized so to do by an act of Congress. 

The election followed and the persons elected were Henry 
Connelly, governor; Manuel Alvarez, lieutenant governor; 
William Messervey, representative in congress. 



460 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Election of Francis Cunningham and Richard Weightman as Senators. 

The State legislature met in Santa Fe on the first of July, 
1850, with the object of electing the senators to congress, but 
many of the members of the legislature, among them H. L. 
Dodge, refused to qualify, and as the newly elected state 
officers attempted to take possession of the government, dis- 
agreeable friction ensued between the two parties, the mili- 
tary government upheld by Governor Monroe, and the civil by 
the lieutenant governor, Manuel Alvarez, who acted as gover- 
nor in the absence of Governor Connelly. The situation 
could not be more complicated. Several of the members 
presented their resignation, refusing to recognize Don 
Manuel Alvarez as governor, one of them H. L. Dodge, in a 
letter addressed to said Alvarez on July 8th, 1850, (who had 
been chosen as representative) tells Mr, Alvarez the follow- 
ing: (This letter I have in my possession. — The Author.) 

"Santa Fe, N. M., July 8, 1850. 
"To His Excellency, Manuel Alvarez, governor ad interim 
of the State of New Mexico: Sir:— With this I tender my 
resignation as member of the state legislature to which I 
have had the honor of being elected. Very truly yours, 

H. L. Dodge." 

Notwithstanding the above mentioned resignation, the 
legislature was organized, and Messrs. Francis Cunningham 
and Richard Weightman were elected senators. Alvarez 
next attempted to establish the state government issuing 
circulars to the different probate judges of the Territory, 
ordering them to call conventions of the people for the elec- 
tion of county officials. That step by Alvarez capped the 
the friction. Governor Monroe protesting, with energy, 
against it in the following terms: 

Protest of Governor Monroe. 

The protest alluded to was addressed to all county probate 
judges of the Territory, and reads thus:* 
"To the Probate Judge of the County of 

"Sir: — Whereas, two documents signed "Manuel Alvarez, 
vice governor of the State of New Mexico,"' addressed to the 
* Original in ])ossession of the author of this work. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 461 

prefects of the County of Santa F^, one being a proclamation 
to hold elections for county officers, and the other an extract 
taken from a law passed in the last legislature of the State 
of New Mexico stating the time and manner of holding certain 
elections, have been remitted to me by said probate judge; 
and as it is presumed that similar documents have been 
addressed to the other probate judges of the different coun- 
ties of the Territory. You are hereby instructed, that the 
state government of the State of New Mexico has no legal 
existence till New Mexico is admitted into the union as a state 
by the Congress of the United States, and that, until it be 
determined otherwise by competent authority, the present 
government will continue, and will be upheld as the actual 
government of the Territory of New Mexico. 

"You shall, therefore, unheed the proclamation commands, 
or other acts issued by the hands of said Alvarez, vice gov- 
ernor, or any other official under the state government, and 
hold same null and void; and whatever other communication 
may be made to you by the above mentioned party or others 
you are hereby instructed to remit same immediately to the 
secretary of the territory. 

"By order of John Monroe, military and civil governor of 
the Territory of New Mexico. 

"Given under my hand in the office of the secretary of the 
Territory of New Mexico this 23rd day of July, 1850, 

"By order of H. E. the governor, 

DoNACiANO Vigil, (Seal), 

Secretary." 

In spite of the protest of Monroe, Alvarez kept on organ- 
izing his forces all over the territory, and instructing the 
probate judges not to pay any attention to Monroe's protest, 
but that they should obey him and the other officers of the 
State, because the civil government was superior, in times of 
peace, to the military government. 

Alvarez Receives Bad News. 

From all parts of the Territory, communications came to 
Alvarez from his agents informing him that the probate- 
judges and other county officials denied him and his govern- 



462 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

ment recognition. Chief among his agents was Don Francisco 
Tomas Cabeza de Baca, and, as similar reports came from 
other persons the author has selected the reports on account 
of the said Cabeza de Baca, from among many others of the 
same tenor which Alvarez received from other agents. By 
letter of August 4th, 1850, Mr. Baca says what follows:* 

"Peiia Blanca, Aug. 4, 1850. 
"Sr. Don Manuel Alvarez: 

"My dear and esteemed sir: — On the 2nd inst. 1 received 
the credentials you remitted to me, together with an extract 
of the law which must settle the dem.arkations for the 
elections which by law must be held on the 15th inst., and 
although according to the extraordinary measures of the 
military commandant in opposition to the dispositions made 
by the state government which by right legally exists, I see 
that the endeavors I will make will have no effect. But, not- 
withstanding all my business, to-morrow I will start for the 
southern district to sound the voters, and I shall opportunely 
advise you of the result. The paper addressed to Mr. V. V. 
Z. is at hand etc., and it will be delivered on time. 
Yours Truly, 

Franco Tomas Cabeza de Baca" (Seal). 

Don Tomas Baca undertook the journey, according to this 
promise, returning to Pena Blanca four days after, dis- 
couraged and convinced that Alvarez's authority would not 
be recognized. So he says in the letter we give below: 

"Peiia Blanca, August 8th, 1850. 
"Sir Don Manuel Alvarez: 

"My dear sir of my most attentive consideration: As I 
indicated to you that I would go down to the Rio Abajo to 
sound the people, I have discovered that all our friends are 
well disposed to obey the laws of the state, but at the same 
time I find that the extracts of the law on elections are not 
sufficient, as I understand of the paragraphs that are con- 
tained in the extract which you sent me; the whole law is 
necessary in order that the judges may arrange their pro- 
ceedings and that same be published to the people; on the 

*These letters I have in my possession. — The Author. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 463 

other hand, the legislature has not provided who shall be the 
judges nor to whom they shall address their orders, the 
prefects and sheriffs having refused to obey them, and at the 
same time I see that the time appointed is extremely brief to 
carry into effect the law, and the opinion of the judges is 
that they have no powers to extend the term fixed by law. 
I request you to tell me in your answer whatever may occur 
to you in the premises. 

"The last resolve of our friends has been to wait to see if 
there is any combination between the judges of Santa Fe and 
the military commandant; and if against us, then to wait for 
the arrival of Mr. Connelly. Yours truly, 

"Francisco Tomas Cabeza de Baca" (Seal). 

Mr. Alvarez received similar letters from other parts of 
the Territory; he and the other state officials were now dis- 
heartened. The state legislature continued, however, in ses- 
sion, with the two administrations acting, the military and 
the state government. Such was the state of things when 
the news reached from Washington in the form of a decree 
from the Department of the Interior announcing that Con- 
gress had granted the petition formerly made bo it by the 
convention of October 14th, 1848, having passed a law for the 
admission of California as a state, and for the organization 
of New Mexico and Utah as Territories of the Union. That 
law was approved on the 9th of September, 1850, providing, 
in addition to the organization of New Mexico as a Territory, 
authority to pay Texas the sum of $10,000,000 in absolute 
settlement of her claims against New Mexico. 

The Territorial Government is Organized — The Military Power Yields 
to the Civil— First Delegate in Congress. 

With the news received from Washington, the state govern- 
ment came to an end, but not the hopes and wishes of the 
people towards seeing the fulfillment of the promise made 
by General Kearny, when he took possession of New Mexico, 
which promise was reiterated by the government of the 
United States to the government of Mexico in the treaty of 
Guadalupe Hidalgo on the 2nd of February, 1848. The strug- 
gle at once began to obtain the admission of New Mexico into 



■464 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

the Union, a struggle which continued without cessation, 
year in and year out but without success, until the year, 1910, 
in which Congress at last decreed, the admission of New 
Mexico into the union; of this \ye will treat in the chapter 
which I will devote to the "Statehood Question, History of 
the Struggle." 

On the 3rd day of March, 1851, the Territory of New Mex- 
ico became formally organized with the inauguration of her 
first civil governor, Mr. James S. Ca.lhoun, Donaciano Vigil 
as secretary, and the admission of Mr. William Messervy 
(who had been elected a member of the house of representa- 
tives at Washington, by the state legislature) as delegate to 
congress from the Territory of New Mexico. 

Immediately after the inauguration of Governor Calhoun 
an election was ordered; the election was held and county offi- 
cers and a legislature were elected. 

Meeting of the First Legislature Under the Organic Act. 

The first territorial legislature met in Santa F6, June 1, 
1851, with the following senators and members of the lower 
house: Council, First District — Counties of Taos and Rio 
Arriba, Pablo Gallegos, George Gold, Rev. Antonio Jose Mar- 
tinez, Vicente Martinez and Antonio Ortiz. Second District 
— Counties of Santa Fe and San Miguel, The Presbyter, Jose 
Francisco Leyba, Vicar General, Juan Felipe Ortiz and Hugh 
N. Smith. Third District — Counties of Bernulillo and Santa 
Ana, Tomas Cabeza de Baca and Presbyter Jos6 Manuel 
Gallegos. Fourth District — Counties of Valencia and Socorro, 
Florencio Castillo, Juan C. Chavez and Franco. Anto. Otero. 

Members of the lower House: County of Taos, Raym_undo 
C6rdova, Dionicio Gonzales, Pascual Martinez, Miguel Mas- 
carenas and Theodore Wheaton. County of Rio Arriba, 
Geronimo Jaramillo. Jos^ Antonio Manzanares, Diego Sala- 
zar, Celedonio Valdez, Ramon Vigil. County of Santa Ana, 
Jos6 Sandoval. County of Santa F6, Candido Ortiz, Palmer 
Pilans, Merrill Ashrust, Robert T. Brent. County of San 
Miguel, Hilario Gonzales, M. Sena y Quintana, M, Sena y 
Romero. County of Bernalillo, Juan Cristoval Armijo, Spruce 
M. Baird and Jos6 Leandro Perea. County of Valencia, Juan 
Cruz Baca, Juan Jos6 Sanchez, William C. Skinner. County 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 465 

of Socorro, Juan Torres and Esquipula Vi^il. The presiding 
officers of the respective bodies were: Of the Council, Presby- 
ter Antonio Jose Martinez; of the House, Theodore Wheaton, 
both of the County of Taos. The other officers of the Terri- 
tory were the following: Elias P. West. Attorney General; 
G. Sohns, Marshal: Supreme Judge, Crafton Baker; John S. 
Watts and Horace Mower, Associate Justices; Treasurer, 
Charles Blumner; Auditor, Eugene Leitendorfer. 

With the organization of the territorial government, the 
tirst newspaper in English and Spanish, "Santa Fe Gazette," 
was established, although before that date other papers had 
been published, one of them entitled "Republican," whose 
life was very short, and one in Spanish (of this last named 
the author of this work has a copy) entitled "El Nuevo 
Mejicano," but that fact notwithstanding, the said printing 
offices did not print the election ballots; or through the 
enmity between the two parties it did not care to print the 
ballots for the party headed by Alvarez. Be that as it may, 
the truth about the matter is that, for the election that was 
held in August of the next year, 1852,* the Alvarez party 
had to print its ballots in the state of Missouri, as the letter 
of Mr. David B. Whiting shows, which we give below. t The 
letter follows: 

"Independence, July 1st, 1852. 
"Hon. Manuel Alvarez 

Santa Pe, N. M. 

"My esteemed sir and friend: — Your very attentive letter, 
giving me a list of the candidates for the house of represen- 
tatives in the three counties of Santa Fe, Rio Arriba, and 
San Miguel was dehvered to me at Cimarron. As soon as I 
got here, I had the ballots printed which I have the pleasure 
to remit to you by this mail. The cost of printing them is 
136.00 and there are two thousand for each county. Had the 
gentlemen of Rio Abajo sent in the names they also would 
have had their ballots. 

"The governor will arrive here or at Katisas tomorrow or 



*The ballots used formally were written by hand and pen. I have 
two of them in my possession.— The Author. 

tThe letter of Mr. Whiting is written in excellent Spanish and is 
in my possession.— The Author. 







+- c 




ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 467 

the day after. His health was the same, but I beheve he will 
get better in his trip to Washington. 

'-There is nothing new here; it is said that Henry Clay 
died day before yesterday, but this is uncertain. The can- 
didates for president and vice-president, are Scott and 
Graham, on the Whig side, and Pierce and King, on the 
Democratic side. It is believed Scott will be elected, I don't 
know, we will see. Please present my regards to all 
friends, I am, 

Yours Truly, 

David B. Whiting." 

With the narrative given the reader in the preceding para- 
graphs, this chapter closes. In the next one we will give an 
account of other incidents as important as the ones the 
reader has read in this chapter. 



CHAPTER VIIL 



Richard H. Weightman Elected Directly by the People — Energetic De- 
fense of the People of New Mexico and its Civil Government — 
Correct Description of the Lamentable Political Situation in Which 
New Mexico was Found in Those Years — Alvarez is and is not 
Governor for Three Days — Lane Takes Possession of a Part of 
Mexican Territory Claimed by the State of Chihuahua — Other 
Things of Importance. 



1852-1853. 



Richard H. Weightman was the successor of William S. 
Messervey as Representative of the Territory of New Mex- 
ico in the Congress of the Union, having been elected directl}?- 
by the people in the elections held in 1851, being, therefore, 
the first Delegate of New Mexico chosen by a majority of the 
voters. During the incumbency of Mr. Weightman the poli- 
tical waves wereat their height of agitation, and the corruption 
reached its topmost fullness, a corruption which the adher- 
ents of the military government had been practising in New 
Mexico. Criminations and recriminations were tiled in Con- 
gress by both parties against each other, the enemies of 
Governor Calhoun making severe attacks against said gov- 
ernor, against Delegate Weightman, and against the people 
of New Mexico, compelling Delegate Weightman, by their 
shameless conduct to make complete exposure of the crimes 
and frauds which had come to be the order of the day since 
the moment in whicli the change of flags was consummated. 
The speecii which Mr. Weightman delivered in the House 
of Representatives deserves a pre-eminent place in the his- 
tory of New Mexico, on account of the nobleness of its senti- 
ments, the brilliancy of its ideas, and, above all, on account 
of the defense he made of the unjustly attacked people of 
New Mexico; wherefore the author made a careful and con- 
scientious analysis of said speech, and gives it below, inter- 



470 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

posed with the comments which the author thought 
necessary. The speecli follows: 

Political Corruption in New Mexico — Exposure by the First Delegate — 
Speech of Hon. Richard H. Weightman — Slavery in New Mexico. 

(Delivered in Washing-ton, March 15, 1852.) 

In order to give an idea of the splendid defense of the 
people of New Mexico made by Hon. Richard H. Weightman 
in the speech he delivered in the House of Representatives 
on March 15, 1852, we publish, in the sequel, copious extracts 
from said speech which was prompted, first, by the attacks 
of Congressman Phelps, from Missouri, against Governor 
Calhoun (which attacks were in great part a malignant and 
slanderous diatribe against the native people of New Mexico); 
and, secondly, an exposure of the abuses, and arbitrary 
conduct of the military government, which, at that time> 
ruled over New Mexico. As the under-mentioned speech is 
too extensive to be reproduced here, in its entirety, we shall 
limit ourselves to its most important points, and, at the same 
time, we shall say that Mr. Weightman was the first Delegate 
of New Mexico in Congress, elected by the people, and one 
who, on account of his intellectual gifts, no less than his 
services, is worthy of the remembrance and gratitude of the 
New Mexicans. 

Mr. Weightman said: 

"Mr. President: — I was anxious the other day that this 
question of privilege, in regard to the seat of the delegate 
from New Mexico, should come up, not for the purpose, as 
[ then stated, for making any objection to the printing of the 
memorial and the accompanying papers, or to their reference 
to the committee of elections, but for the purpose of contra- 
dicting, promptly and at once, the gross charges which have 
been made against the honorable gentleman who is now 
governor of New Mexico. I regret that he has not a better 
advocate than myself on this occasion. I regret that he has 
no forceful Breckenridge, or brillant Marshall up here in 
his defense. But such as 1 am I bring to this question the 
highest regard for that honorable gentleman, and admiration 
of his course in New Mexico. In my belief, the honorable- 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 471 

governor of New Mexico has pursued a course calculated to 
make the Mexicans — who have been separated from their 
.government by no act of theirs, and who now owe allegiance 
to the government of the United States— feel that they are 
at least a part of this government; that tliey have rights here 
that ought to be protected; and that the government to which 
they belong was created by the people, and ought to be 
administered for their benefit. The elevation of policy and 
motives which distinguish the governor of New Mexico, is 
not appreciated and cannot be appreciated by those who 
would injure and belie him. Against the governor of New 
Mexico there have been arrayed divers and powerful influ- 
ences. I think I am well enough acquainted with my 
countrymen to know that when powerful influences are 
brought to bear against any individual, and there is an 
attempt to crush a man who is in the discharge of high and 
honorable duties, the mere knowledge of that fact will make 
those influences powerless. 

"I shall allude now to one of those influences. I am about 
to read from a newspaper which, I understand, has the 
largest circulation of perhaps any paper in the Union; I 
mean the National Era. It is the number of February 26th, 
and the article is headed: 

"Scoundrelism in Our Territories — Kidnapping Under a Governor's 
License. 

' "We publish on our fourth page an editorial from the 
Desert News disclosing a state of things in our Territories 
which demands the immediate attention of the chief execu- 
tive- According to the statement, Governor Calhoun, of 
New Mexico, is no better than an infamous kidnapper. 
Gangs of traders with licenses bearing his name, authoriz- 
ing them to purchase Indian children as slaves for the ben- 
efit of persons in New Mexico, have lately been driven out of 
the Territory of Utah. Bad as the Mormons are repre- 
sented to be, they are not so devilish as to connive at this 
new trade in human blood, which a United States officer, 
appointed by Mr. Fillmore, seems ambitious to establish." ' 

Now I desire to refer to the article to see how much 
authority the editor of the Era had for'that statement. 



472 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Mr. Weightman here reproduces said articles, which are 
taken from the New York Herald, and which say that some 
traders were expelled from Utah by the Mormons because 
they w^ere trading with the Indians under licenses issued by 
Governor Calhoun. These traders were Pedro Leon and 
twenty Spanish-Americans who, it is said, were exchanging 
horses for Indian children. Mr. Weightman continues: 

"And that is all. He does not say for the purpose of trad- 
ing for Indian children as slaves. 

"There are other parts of this article which is not neces- 
sary for me to read. But the Desert News, the quoted 
authority of the Era, does not confirm the statement that by 
the license of Governor Calhoun there has been authorized 
trade in children of any kind, notwithstanding the reckless 
and unscrupulous statement of the National Era. This is 
one of the influences to which I alluded. This influence 
brought to bear against Governor Calhoun may be traced in 
a kindred paper in Santa Fe, edited by a gentleman who is 
an agent of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, 
who does little else than malign the governor, the gallant 
Sumner, commanding the troops in New Mexico, and the 
humble individual who now addresses you. This society is 
a powerful one; and it is one of the chief influences which 
has been brought to bear upon the governor of the Territory. 

"To show the design of the National Era in its reckless and 
unscrupulous statements in reference to Governor Calhoun, 
I wish to read a letter which I wrote at the request of Gen- 
eral Foote. I wrote it early in the present session of Con- 
gress. I desire to read it in connection with the comments 
of the National Era, in which the editor makes the threat that 
I shall be made to feel for my contumacy, if I continue the 
course which I have thought proper to pursue. Here is the 

letter: 

"Washington, December 16, 1851. 

"My Dear Sir: — In compliance with your request, I give 
you my views as to the popular feeling concerning slavery in 
New Mexico. 

"The popular feeling in New Mexico is, I believe, fixedly 
set against that country being made the arena in which to 
decide political questions in which the people have no practi- 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 473 

cal interest,andall attempts which have heretofore been made, 
or which hereafter may be made, to induce the people of that 
country to take sides on a question in w^hich they are not at all 
interested, have been, and will, I trust, forever be utterly 
abortive. 

"There are in New Mexico a few negroes, in all, as shown 
by the census, seventeen; and of this number there may be 
as many as five or six slaves — house — servants of officers of 
the army and others. 

"There has, up to this time, before the judicial tribunals, 
been no case of a negro held to slavery suing for his freedom. 
When such a case shall occur, it will, in my opinion, be adju- 
dicated without popular excitement of any kind, though the 
people are, I believe, opposed to the introduction of slave 
labor among themselves; and when the time shall come when 
they shall think proper to seek admission as a State of the 
Union, they will, I am inclined to think, should there be in 
their opinion danger of the introduction of slave labor there, 
proJnbit it. But, as there is at this time no such danger, 
there is no excitement on the subject; and I see in the future 
no likelihood of the introduction of slave labor there, I appre- 
hend that the popular mind, will, as now, remain calm on this 
point, and the question of prohibiting, admitting, or remain- 
ing silent concerning slavery, will be treated simply as a 
matter of policy in reference to being admitted into the 
Union. * * * 

"A vigorous effort was this year made to interest the people 
in this vexed question, but all in vain. A document entitled 
'an address to the inhabitants of New Mexico and California 
on the Social and Political Evils of Slavery' was industri- 
ously circulated in New Mexico in the Spaiiish language by an 
agent of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, 
who is at this time the editor of the 'Santa Pe Gazette,' in 
the columns of which paper he is republishing occasional 
chapters of this document. In this is drawn a comparison, 
more highly wrought than true, between the north and the 
south in reference to state of education, state of morals, state 
of religion, disregard of human life, disregard of constitu- 
tional obligations, population, military weakness etc., etc.." 

The author omits the rest of the letter because it deals 



474 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO, 

with the same things contained in the foregoing paragraphs 
and for the purpose of avoiding repetitions; and we do the 
hke with the paragraphs he inserts in his speech taken from 
the newspaper the "National Era," in which Mr. Weightman 
is censured, and is charged with having submitted and bent 
the knee to the slave advocates at Washington, The speech 
continues: 

"It may be that the National Era and those whom it repre- 
sents may make me 'learn,' because of the views I conscien- 
tiously entertain; and, if in its endeavors to 'make me learn,' 
it is as unscrupulous in its attacks on me as it has been on 
Governor Calhoun, I doubt not it will be shown up in a way 
to induce the subscribers of that paper to believe me a 
monster of iniquity. 

"There is another newspaper in the United States that has 
thought proper to take up the cudgels against Governor 
Calhoun. It is the St. Louis Republican. This paper has the 
largest circulation of any paper west of the Alleghany Moun- 
tains, at least I am inclined to think so, and was built up 
by the energy and enterprise of the editor who is the pro- 
prietor also. As the circulation of this paper increased so 
did the views of its editor enlarge, until he has at this time, 
I believe, taken under his control the whole State of Mis- 
souri, not only as regards its general policy, but he can tell 
you who is the best man in the country, to be brought out as 
constable for any township in the state. He has extended 
himself also to the State of Illinois, in the same way, and will 
be able to give the members from Missouri or Illinois excel- 
lent advice as to the way they are to conduct themselves in 
Congress. 

"He has also attended, generally and largely, to the Indian 
policy of the government, and knows more about the Indians 
lying between Behring Strait and the southeast corner of 
Texas, than Pitzpatrick or any of those old mountaineers, 
intelligent or educated men, who have spent forty years 
among the mountains; and if the government could only be 
persuaded to turn over to the editor of that paper the charge 
of the Indian affairs, they would be placed upon a bottom as 
broad and substantial as the editor's, and all that 'old fogy- 
ism' about Indian policy, begun by John C. Calhoun and 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 475- 

continued by his successors in the war and interior depart- 
ments, would be securely shelved forever. He is also able to 
give excellent advice in regard to the contiguous potato 
patches of New Mexico, Utah, Oregon and California; and 
should the circulation of his paper be still further extended^ 
will be quite competent to regulate the affairs of the universe. 
This paper, for some reason, which I will not undertake to 
determine, published, with apparent pleasure, anonymous 
articles which were abusive of the governor of New Mexico; 
and while he did this, it was with a great deal of difificulty that 
the insertion of any publication, in the nature of a defense of 
that gentleman, could be obtained, although the communica- 
tion might not be anonymous. I refer to a communication of 
my own, which appeared in the paper after a considerable 
contest with the editor. * * * * j suppose that he is 
the representative of the mercantile interests in New Mexico. 
That is one of the influences which is brought to bear against 
Governor Calhoun. This influence is more extended and 
ramified than might be supposed. The Santa Fe merchants 
owe five, or twenty or fifty thousand dollars to St. Louis mer- 
chants, to Boston, New York or Philadelphia merchants and 
all of them are interested in being paid their money, and to 
that extent are interested in carrying out the views of the 
Santa Fe merchants. There is another, a military influence 
in New Mexico which has been brought to bear against this 
worthy governor of which I shall presently speak. The peti- 
tion of my honorable contestant contains in itself matters and 
averments altogether sufficient for a defense against all the 
charges contained in the memorial, and, indeed, I may say 
against all the charges bearing directly or indirectly on the 
election, that have been put before this House by the honor- 
able gentleman from Missouri. (Mr. Phelps) This memorial 
sets forth that a notice of his intention to contest my election 
was served upon me in New Mexico, and that that notice of 
contest contained this charge of improper and illegal inter- 
ference on the part of the governor of New Mexico and of his 
corrupt influence in the election. It acknowledges, also, the 
receipt of my answer which denies that interference and cor-^ 
ruption. Here then, is the issue made up; and, according to the law 
of the United States passed by the Congress of the United 



476 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

States regulating the mode of taking testimony in cases of 
contested elections there was a fixed mode in which to take 
testimony. Now the question is why was not that testimony , 
taken? Here is the reason set forth in the memorial: 

'"Mr. Ashrust and myself have made two attempts to take 
the depositions for the contest; but it is absolutely impossible 
to get two justices of of the peace together at one time. Why? 
I cannot tell, but I can very shrewdly guess.' '" 

The orator continues discussing the subject of the contest, 
quotes the law of Congress regarding election contests and 
reproduces his answer to the notice of contest. He then 
proceeds: "A short account of the military government 
which existed in New Mexico, will account for many circum- 
stances that have happened; will furnish the key to many of 
the charges brought against Governor Calhoun; and will, in 
particular, account for the fact that i stand here, returned 
by a large majority. This history will show that I stood up 
for the people to protect them against outrageous violence — 
outrages the most insufferable ever perpetrated anywhere." 

Here the author, to give the reader an idea of the methods 
used by the political parties at that epoch, quotes a letter 
which was published in Santa ¥6 in the newspaper "Union"' 
with the date of 8th of October, 1850, to which Weightman 
referred saying: "It is false that the state movement was 
initiated by the military commandant of New Mexico. 

"The state movement was initiated by sixteen civilians, 
citizens of the United States —some of American, some of 
Mexican blood — some Democrats and some whigs- some 
natives of southern and some of northern states. Their 
address to the people appeared in the columns of the 'New 
Mexican", December 8th, 1849, and was replied to by a 
counter-address in the columns of the same paper signed by 
sixty-two other civilians, among whom were included all the 
judges of circuit courts, the prefectos, the sheriffs, the alcal- 
des, and in fact the great body of the officers of the civil gov- 
ernment of the military commander all of ivhorn held their 
offices at his absolute will and jjleasure. 

"The state movement was denounced by them as a factious 
movement, and the movers as the Alvarez Jaction. As the 
movement progressed, it was discovered that the military 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 477 

commander had a decided leaning towards the territorial 
party — indeed, his acts were decidedly partisan and against the 
state party . 

"The state party at the late elections triumphed in every 
county except one, and did so despite the almost unanimous 
opposition of the judges, alcaldes, etc., who held their offices 
from the quartermaster department. 

"The same combination exists today. Here is the quar- 
termaster, and his friends are here with him. I have merely 
wished to show that the present opponents of Governor Cal- 
houn are the legitimate successors of that old military party, 
and that it is no wonder the man who opposed it should 
stand here elected triumphantly by the people and without 
the necessity of the improper and corrupt interference of 
any one. I continue from the article in the Union: 

"The civil officers who held their offices at the will and 
pleasure of the military commander, were about one hundred 
and fifty in number, were distributed over the whole coun- 
try, and all of them except five or six, opposed the state 
movement. They were, of course, in a state of organization 
for any purpose in which they thought proper to act together, 
and the power they could bring to bear, and did bring to 
bear, that they were not particularly scrupulous in their 
action may be inferred from the following from the memor- 
ial of the legislature of New Mexico to the Congress of the 
United States. 

"The inhabitants of New Mexico since February 2nd, 1848, 
have groaned under a harsh law forced upon them in time of 
war when they were thought undeserving of confidence. 

"The military is independent of, and superior to, the civil 
power. 

"The inhabitants have no voice or influence in making the 
laws by which they are governed. 

"Some power other than the Congress of the United States 
has made judges dependent on its will alone for the tenure 
of their office and the amount and payment of their salaries, 

"We are taxed without our consent and the taxes, when 
collected, are not applied to the public benefit, but embezzled 
by officers irresponsible to the people. 

"No public officer in New Mexico is responsible to the 



478 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

people. Judges without instruction in the law decide upon 
life, liberty and property. Prefectos and alcaldes impose 
fines and incarcerate without the intervention of a jury. 

"Alcaldes assail the right of the people freely to exercise 
their religion without restriction, and dictate to congrega- 
tions, what priest shall administer the sacrament of the 
church. 

"For all these abuses, the memorial makes the military 
commandant of New Mexico responsible, and in a particular 
way the quartermaster's department. 

"Now Mr. President, you will be surprised at the amount 
of pains I took to reform that military government. I have 
a perfect stack of charges here, made by me against it to 
Governor Monroe, for oppressions upon the people to not 
one of which did he pay any attention. I will refer to them 
by their heads, and in the first place I will speak of Judge 
Houghton." 

Here the orator introduces a series of charges accusing 
Judge Houghton, circuit judge of New Mexico of mal- 
feasance and negligence in his duties, of receiving money 
from individuals, and of many other offenses therein speci- 
fied. He continues: 

"It may be proper to mention that I sent word to Colonel 
Munroe's 'fountain of justice" that if he asked from said 
gentleman an investigation and I could not prove my charges 
I would freely and cheerfully retract and make amends. 
He did not seek an investigation notwithstanding he very much 
desired my good opinion. He had applied to me for a certi- 
ficate of good character. 

"We did meet that day, and he got no certificate of character 
or any concession whatever. He was willing to risk his life 
to obtain my endorsement of him, but feared to meet inves- 
tigation. He proposed trial by wager oj battle, and lost his 
cause. Here is another document which shows the inter- 
vention of civil authorities in the rights of the clergy and 
the people of New Mexico." 

Judge Otero Interferes In Church Matters. 

At this place a very extensive document appears in which 
Mr. Weightman shows the complaints of the Vicar Don 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 479 

Juan Felipe Ortiz, who, at that time, was the principal eccle- 
siastical authority in the Territory, regarding civil interven- 
tion in the rights of the church. Among these complaints 
the action of Justice Otero looms up in taking upon himself 
the power to assign and distribute the curates to the priests 
who were under suspension and were out of the fold of the 
church. He quotes the case of Fathers Benigno Cardenas 
and Nicolas Valencia, both under suspension, who by orders 
of the civil authority were in actual possession of the curates 
of Belen and Tome, respectively, the legitimate priests, Baca 
and Otero, having been expelled thence. He then inserts 
two letters of himself (Weightman) to the governor, one of 
them upon the same subject, and the other upon several 
abuses of authority, which he mentions. He then proceeds; 
"To these appeals of an oppressed and distressed people 
Colonel Munroe turned a deaf ear. And the unfortunates of 
Sabinal were arrested, taken to the northern limits of the 
county, a distance of thirty miles from their homes, to be 
examined, and but for the public-spirited conduct of Mr. 
Jose Chavez, of Padillas, they would all have been there 
incarcerated. This gentleman moved by the generous im- 
pulses which nature planted in his heart, came forward and 
gave bail for the oppressed in the sum of $15,000.00 for their 
appearance at the next term of the criminal court in which, 
despite the declaration of the prosecutor that no offense had 
been committed, they were indicted, and those of them, who 
could not give bail a second time, were thrown into prison 
until it should be convenient to try them at a subsequent 
term of the court; and some of these were still in jail when 
Munroe's administration ended, and Calhoun's began, in the 
month of March last. Here is the report of the auditor of 
New Mexico charging certain officers with embezzlement of 
public funds '' 

Rosentein Publicly Whipped. 

In this place appears a letter citing the case of Mr. Simon 
Rosentein, who was arrested, incarcerated and then whip- 
ped by order of the military authority at Albuquerque. 
Alluding next to an article which appeared, under his signa- 
ture, in the newspaper, "Union'", of September 8th, 1850, 



480 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Weightman presented the correspondence had between 
Manuel Alvarez, the governor ad interim, and Colonel J. 
Munroe. Alvarez's letter complains of the military inter- 
vention in the matter of the state movement and of the an- 
swer of Munroe upholding the authority he had as the only 
legal government to intervene in the matter and to convene 
the legislature. In like manner he inserts a resolution of 
both Legislative Houses denouncing Munroe's pretentions to 
act as civil authority and sustaining the right of the people 
to organize a state government. The dispute was referred 
by Colonel Munroe to the war department in Washington, 
and the result was a letter from the secretary of war which 
says, in substance, that, "according to the law recently 
adopted by congress establishing a territorial government 
in New Mexico, it is desirable that hereafter the military 
power shall not intervene with the civil authority except in 
pressing cases when the necessity of preserving order 
requires it."* Weightman continues: 

"It was considered of sufficient importance by the execu- 
tive here to send the letter of instructions of September 10, 
1850, directly to Santa Fe, and it was placed in the hands of 
Mr. Henry Hardy who delivered the same into the hands of 
Colonel Munroe, at Santa Fe, on the 22nd day of October, 
1850. 

"This positive order of his superior was not obeyed by 
Colonel Munroe. Keeping the people in ignorance of the 
tenor of his instructions, he continued precisely as before in 
the exercise of his power as civil and mihtary governor dur- 
ing the entire interval (indicated in the letter of instructions) 
between the reception of his order to abstain, and the organ- 
ization of the territorial government by the installation of 
Governor Calhoun, which took place on or about the 3rd of 
March, 1851; and thus, with all its repugnant officers, whom 
the people had condemned through the ballot box, continu- 
ing in power a government in which the military was supreme 
— in which he was supreme — a government which harassed 
and oppressed the people — which interfered in their religion 
— which distu rbed congregations in their own temples — which 
fined and imprisoned the people without the intervention of 
juries — which taxed them without their consent — which 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 481 

embezzled the taxes when collected, and which scourged 
them without trial. 

"Governor Calhoun was installed on March 3, 1851, and his 
administration was sustained by the people, because it in 
noioise resembled Monroe's. 

"Governor Calhoun thinks, as I do, that the people of New 
Mexico are capable of self-government, and not the miserable, 
degraded and vicious people they have been represented to 
be by the immaculate military government now in that city 
whom the honorable gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Phelps) 
has vouched as so respectable. He thinks, as I do, that they 
deserve the kindly sympathy of the government and people 
of the United States. He thinks, as I do, their right freely 
to exercise their religion is guaranteed as well by the treaty 
of Guadalupe Hidalgo, as by the constitution, and should not 
be infringed. He thinks, as I do, the elective franchise should 
be respected, and that for the majority to govern, is demo- 
cratic — republican. Yes, Mr. Speaker, you may feel sure that 
the honor and dignity of this government will not be tar- 
nished by Governor Calhoun. * * * •' 

In this part of his address Mr, Weightman reproduces a very 
extensive letter which under his signature was published by 
the St. Louis Republican giving an account of the abuses of 
military ofiicers in the elections; denying false rumors which 
were being circulated regarding the supposed disaffection 
of the Mexican population, and the violence committed at 
Ranchos de Taos by a party of armed Americans in order to 
prevent an election there at. He also reproduces an individual 
letter of Judge S. M. Baird, popularly nicknamed "El Chino 
Tejano," in which the letter gives an account of the difficulties 
which occurred on the day of election and the outcome of 
which was the death of Burtinett. Baird's letter is dated at 
Santa F^, January 31st, 1851, and, in part, says: 

"You request me to give you the details of the Burtinett 
and Skinner affair at Los Ranchos. I cannot just now enter 
at lengthy details, as I only received your letter yesterday at 
Albuquerque. I started at once for Los Ranchos and what 
I learned there about Burtinett is the following: On the day 
before the election, Mr. Candido Ortiz came to my house and, 
in the course of conversation, asked me if I intended to go to 



482 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Los Ranches the next day to which I rephed in the negative. 
He then asked me where I would be on the day following; 
to which I rephed that I supposed I should be in my house 
the greater part of the day. He then remarked that he 
should be at Los Ranchos, and that he should, without doubt, 
fight with Ambrosio Armijo (the prefect). He repeated the 
expression, to which, as well as I can recollect, I replied, 
very well, regarding it a mere gasconade. I, however, that 
morning went to the polls at Albuquerque for the purpose of 
voting and looking on to see that no injustice was done. And 
I must say that the Mexican population, when left to them- 
selves, are the most orderly people I have ever seen at any 
election. I have attended two, for the purpose of looking. 
Their custom is to open the polls by reading the proclama- 
tion (5f election aloud. They all take their seats, draw their 
'ojas', punche, flint and steel, and, like philosophers, fall to 
smoking and conversing in the most courteous and affable 
manner about everything, but the election. One party gets 
through voting before the other intrudes. Then the judges 
announce that they are ready to receive the votes of the other 
party. It must be understood that this is the case only in 
precincts where Americans are absent; and I regret to say 
that this system of good order and harmony was interrupted 
on the two occasions alluded to by the intrusion of Americans 
who had not even a right to vote at the precinct in question, 
and some of them, under the law, no right to vote at all. 

"It must also be understood that breaking an election in 
this country is regarded as a masterly political movement by 
those who now style themselves 'the unfortunate party.' On 
the morning of the election I saw nothing of Mr. Ortiz or the 
Americans concerned in the affair at Los Ranchos, until a 
number of votes had been taken, when Ortiz, and, I think, 
twelve Americans entered the room, Rafael Armijo being with 
them, and among them Ralf, and all had bottles of liquor in 
their hands. Some of the Americans, who were from Santa 
F6, presented themselves to vote to which the judge objected. 
(Burtinett was one of them.) They immediately assumed a 
threatening manner towards the judges, who it was evident 
to my mind, were intimidated. I then spoke to the judges, 
and advised them to receive the votes placing the objection 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 483 

opposite their names on the poll book. It was accordingly 
done. Ortiz also voted. One of those veracious Americans 
pledging himself that Burtinett had been discharged, which 
was a falsehood. He was only on furlough. Then there 
being no pretext for a riot there, they left, I know not 
whither at the time. After they had left for the Ranchos, I 
was informed they had gone in a body to that place for the 
purpose of doing some violence, and my informant stated 
that one of the party had importuned him for his pistol until 
he let him have it stating that, unless certain things were 
done at theRanchos, there wouldbeblood shed, etc. You must 
recollect that the Ranchos gives a large majority against the 
party to which these men belonged, and it was, I believe, 
generally understood, that a part of the system of the oppo- 
sition was to break up the elections at all the precincts 
giving large majorities against them. How the impression 
got out, I do not know. About the time they were prepar- 
ing to start for the Ranchos, two young men, natives of 
Ireland, by names of Gleason and Welsh came over from the 
opposite side of the river, from Capt. Walker's camp (where 
they were encamped enroute for California) for the purpose 
of voting for Capt. Reynolds, Gleason having been in his 
employment for sometime anterior. They were there told 
by some of the party that they would have to go to the 
Ranchos to vote; that no Americans were permitted to vote 
at Albuquerque, (utterly false) and thus these two unsus- 
pecting young men were decoyed into difficulty, and Welsh 
badly wounded. This was told me by Gleason afterwards; 
Ortiz returned in the evening wounded, and it was rumored 
among the crowd that he said he had shot the president 
of the election, Atanacio Montoya. I went to the Ranchos 
next day and sawMontoyawoundedonthehead;sawBurtinett 
dead; one Mexican shot in the arm; several Americans 
wounded. There was one missing who came into Albu- 
querque next day stating that he had broken jail through a 
window. As no one has ever been found who knew any- 
thing of his confinement, it is generally supposed that he 
sought shelter in some outhouse during the panic and 
fancied himself imprisoned, and broke out of the window 
while the door was open. Don Juan Armijo states distinctly 



484 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

that Glasscock shot at him five times with a pistol before any 
attempt at defense was made on the part of the citizens. 
If any one doubts of the hospitality and kindness of the 
people of the Ranchos he has but to go there, as a gentleman, 
to change his opinions. I live neighbor to them and have 
never had better neighbors. If those men had succeeded in 
breaking the election I have no doubt that the whole plan 
and its success would have been a matter of boasting. Bear 
in mind that some of these men, as I am informed, presented 
themselves at the Ranchos to vote after having voted at 
Albuquerque and the refusal on the part of the judges was 
made the pretext for the riots. 

"In regard to the Skinner atfair, I can add but little to the 
testimony that has been published, although it was badly 
reported." 

In reference to the Skinner aflair, Mr. Weightman says: 

"Mr. Juan Crist6val Armijo gave the required bond, and, 
conscious that he had violated no law of the land, remained 
quietly in his own house, presented himself before the 
district court of the United States, and Judge Mower pre- 
siding, the bill against him was ignored by the grand jury. * 
* * * And now i ask, if the killing of Mr. Skinner had been 
a murder, how is the governor connected with such murder? 
And I ask, sir, if you believe there has been any murder 
committed at all? No, sir; when a man engaged in lawful, 
peaceful pursuits under his own roof-tree with his pen in. 
hand, surrounded by his friends, dreaming of no attacks on 
his life, is suddenly startled by the presentation of a pistol 
at his breast, kills his assailant or his friends kill him at 
once, no murder is committed, sir. 

"I cannot close my remarks without saying a few words of 
denial of the charges which have been directed against the 
people I represent. Should I close my remarks without 
speaking in their behalf, I would be unmindful of the courte- 
sies, and kindness and hospitality I have invariably received 
in every part of New Mexico, and be unworthy to represent 
a people who, with frankness and confidence, have trusted 
to me to represent their true condition and promote their in- 
terest and happiness. The people of New Mexico have been re- 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 485 

presented as entertaining feelings of deadly hostility towards 
the native bora citizens of the United States which makes their 
lives unsafe in New Mexico, that the New Mexicans are on 
the very eve of revolt against the government of the United 
States. So help me heaven, Mr. Speaker, this is all untrue. I 
assert it to be untrue on my responsibility as a representa- 
tive, and honor as a gentleman. Were it true the governor of 
New Mexico would have long since exposed it, and I would not 
be here as the representative of such people. But these are 
my assertions, I would convince your reason. New Mexico was 
taken possession of by Gen. Kearny with 1,500 men 'without 
firing a gun or shedding a drop of blood." This was when the 
New Mexicans in time of war were organized to resist us and 
desired to keep us out of their country, and when they had a 
right to expect the support of the Republic of Mexico; 
and now without hope of assistance from Mexico, with 
more than 1,500 soldiers in their country ordered there to 
suppress Indian depredations, themselves unorganized, it is 
asserted that they are at the very verge of revolt against the 
government of the United States whose power they now full 
well understand. Of all those who have been loudest in their 
outcries that there was no safety for American lives in New 
Mexico, what two of them have ever thought it necessary to 
come together for the purpose of combining for self defense? 
In the midst of all this outcry. Mr. Speaker, there has been 
no case of a native citizen of the United States fleeing from his 
place of business in New Mexico for fear of his life. They are 
living now, and have been all the time in perfect security, 
living in whatever town in New Mexico interest or freak 
dictated — in many cases a single one living in a town where 
for months at a time he could meet no one with whom he 
could converse in the English language — living with New 
Mexicans, eating with New Mexicans — sleeping with New 
Mexicans, without even occurring to them to fear the conse- 
quences of so doing, except theoretically when passing reso- 
lutions for political effect. This picture which has been pre- 
sented of my constituents by the old adherents of the military 
government is false in coloring and untrue in details. 1 have 
never met in any part of the United States people more hospitable, 



486 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OP NEW MEXICO. 

more law-abiding , more kind, more generous^ more desirous of 
improvement, more desirous that a general system of education 
should be established among them, more d.esirous that the many and 
not the Jeiu should govern, more appj-ehensive of the tendency of 
power to steal from the many for the few, more desirous oj seeing 
in their own idiom the Declaration of Indepevdence, the Constitu- 
tion of the United States, the history and words of the father of his 
country, the messages q/ presidents, and state papers illustrative 
oJ the spirit and genius q/ our government. Among them I have 
met men of incorruptible integrity, q/ honor, refinement, intelli- 
gence and information.''^ 

The reader must doubtlessly have derived some pleasure 
from the perusal of the preceding paragraphs, and must 
have at the same time, learned the history of that troublous 
epoch; all that, notwithstanding the interesting exposure 
made by Mr. Weightman, was nothing else than the begin- 
ning of many hardships which the people of New Mexico 
suffered up to the year 1911, which year will form the most 
luminous page of our history because of the fulfillment, that 
year, of the solemn promise made by Kearny in 1846, and by 
the American government in 1848, (ante) of giving us com- 
plete political autonomy. Let us now return to the narrative 
of what was then occurring in the Territory. 

Alvarez is Governor for Two Days. 

In the year 1852, the dreams of Don Manuel Alvarez came 
to their realization in satisfying the ambition of his soul of 
becoming governor of New Mexico. Perhaps by a caprice 
of destiny or as a mere joke, Governor Calhoun intended to 
play on him, Mr. Alvarez happened to be governor of New 
Mexico, without being such, like the "reason without rea- 
son" of Don Quixote. On the 30th of March, Governor Cal- 
houn issued the following announcement: 

"Executive Department, Santa F4, New Mexico. 

March 30th, 1852. 

"Having learned that, on account of domestic affairs of an 

afflicting nature, the honorable Secretary of New Mexico 

must depart for the United States as soon as possible, and, 

in virtue of the authority on me conferred by the goverment 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 487 

of the United States, the following announcement has been 
issued and the same is given publicity for the information of 
all those whom it may concern; 

"Executive Department. 

Santa F6, N. M. March 29th, 1852. 
"I, James S. Calhoun, governor of the Territory of New 
Mexico, trusting in the integrity and ability of Manuel 
Alvarez, do, by these presents, select him, and name him, to 
act as governor of the Territory of New Mexico during my 
absence from said Territory, said appointment to take effect 
on the tirst day of April next. 

"Given under my hand today, Monday, March 29th, 1852, 
at nine o'clock, a. m. 

James S. Calhoun, 
By the Governor, 

D. V. Whiting, 
(seal) S. E. D.'- 

On the 2nd day of April, 1852, or on the next day, the day 
in which Alvarez should have begun to act, his authority was 
revoked by the following announcement. 

"To all whom it may concern: 

Know ye: That whereas I, James S. Calhoun, governor of 
the Territory of New Mexico, on account of my health not 
permitting it, I shall not leave the Territory as soon as I had 
anticipated, but shall continue acting as governor, as I 
have been acting until now; therefore, the order or announce- 
ment issued March 30th, 1852, in which Hon. Manuel Alvarez 
was appointed governor ad interim of the Territory is 
hereby annulled, of which act I herewith with pleasure 
inform Hon. Manuel Alvarez that he may be relieved from 
the duties which he had so kindly consented to assume at 
my sincere request. 

Given under my hand and seal today, the 2nd of April, 
1852. 

James S. Calhoun, Governor.* 
"By David V. Whiting, 

(Seal; S. E. D." 

*OtRcial copy in my possession.— The Author. 



488 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

John Greiner Acts as Governor — Garr Lane Succeeds Him. 

In the year 1852, Governor Calhoun had, in fact, to absent 
himself for a time, but when he was compelled to take the 
step, he did not leave Mr. Alvarez as acting governor; no, 
the charge was assumed by Mr. John Greiner, the Secretary 
of the Territory, who was the only one, under the organic 
law, who could act ad interim. Mr. William Carr Lane was 
the regular successor to Governor Calhoun, and it was he, 
Lane, who on December 7th, 1852, communicated to the 
legislature the true situation of the Territory, and, on the 
13th of March, 1853, under his own responsibility, and with- 
out any orders from the American government, as he him- 
self declares it, took possession of all that part of the Terri- 
tory laying on the western bank of Rio del Norte and to which 
the government of Chihuahua lay claim, alleging that that 
part of the Territory had not been included in the treaty of 
Guadalupe Hidalgo. Prom the message we clip the following: 

Governor W. G. Lane to the Legislature of New Mexico — Extracts 
From the Message. 

(Message and Proclamation herein referred to is in pos- 
session of the author or this work). 
"Gentlemen of the Legislative Assembly: 

"During my short residence in this country, I have visited 
six of the nine counties which compose the Territory; and I 
have endeavored, by every means within my reach, to gain 
some knowledge of the condition of the people. 

"It cannot be denied that the tirst aspect of things in this 
Territory is discouraging. 

"We are very distant from the states, difficult of access, 
and surrounded by barbarians of doubtful faith. The face 
of the country is mountainous and of great elevation, with an 
appearance of sterility, from scarcity of water. The papu- 
lation, which does not much exceed 60,000 souls, is widely 
scattered, through distant valleys, over an area so immense 
that 20 companies of United States troops are insufficient for 
its protection against the Indians; and your own people are 
so badly armed that they cannot protect their own property 
from depredation. Agriculture and stock raising, the two 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 489 

great interests of the Territory, are depressed, for the want 
of protection, for flocks and herds. Your mines are nearly 
abandoned, and their products, (gold and silver excepted,) 
will not bear the transportation. 

"Your highways are in a bad condition and the school- 
master, (an indispensable functionary in popular govern- 
ment,) is rarely seen amongst you. 

"The country is run over with red and white thieves and 
robbers. Your prisons are insecure and no appropriation 
has yet been made by Congress for a territorial penitentiary. 
Your ancient ways and usages (which were based upon the 
principles of civil law) have been substituted; and these im- 
perfect laws are imperfectly administered, 

"Your revenue laws are so defective, that sufficient funds 
are not provided for the ordinary purposes of government. 
There are sixteen communities of civilized Indians scattered 
through your settlements each governed by its own laws, 
administered after its own manner, and each claiming 
exemption from the operation of all civil regulations of the 
Territory — presenting the anomaly of an ^'Imperium in 
Imperio", or rather a series of such anomalies. 

"Business amongst you languishes and much discontent 
prevails; indeed a feeling of insecurity and uncertainty 
about the future is felt by many persons. And to crown all, 
unreasonable jealousies and bickerings exist between the 
natives of the country and immigrants. 

"These discouragements, would be appalling were it not 
evident to every reflecting mind, that all these difiiculties 
are, either temporary, or removable by proper exertions. I 
consider the Territory to be now at its lowest point of depres- 
sion; and feel assured that Providence has a brilliant future 
in store for her, if she will be faithful to her own interests. 

"Let us now bring into view some of the sources from 
which public and private prosperity may be expected to flow. 
Your country is one of the very healthiest on the globe. 
Your agricultural products are various, your soil rewards 
your labor abundantly, and your tillable lands may be 
increased, perhaps, more than a thousand fold, by improved 
acequias and by tanques. Besides, at a cost within your reach, 
your acequias may be carried upon higher levels and enlarged 



490 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

into canals,— thereby affording water for irrigation — water 
power for machinery and highways for commerce. The 
scarcity of water is more apparent than real; for excellent 
well-water has been invariably found in valleys at depths 
from fifteen to tifty feet; and, I am much mistaken, if good 
well-water cannot be procured at practicable depths, even 
upon the Jornada del Muerto and all the mesas including that 
extraordinary table land, the Llano Estacado. Our enterpris- 
ing fellow citizen, Senor Don Jesus de Loya, is, unaided, 
making the experiment of an artesian well in the vicinity of 
this city, and ought to be assisted, in his enterprise, by the 
government; for, if his experiment should be successful, who 
can estimate the benefits from it to the whole Territory y 

"Your facilities for stock-raising are unequalled; and a 
well-organized volunteer militia force will protect your stock 
from red thieves, and a penitentiary will rid you of white 
thieves. Your rich mines of gold, silver, copper, lead, and 
iron, and your abundant supply of common salt, coal, gypsum, 
marble, nitre, and soda only require time, capital and indus- 
try, with good roads to make them available, as great sources 
of public and private wealth. 

"From public and private necessity, this continent, must 
soon be crossed, from east to west, by railroad and telegraph 
lines, and, in all probabilities, one, or more of those railroad 
and telegraphic lines will traverse New Mexico. And when 
they do, what mighty change will be the result! In the mean- 
time caravansaries, or station-houses, a day"s journey apart, 
upon all the great roads leading to the Territory, would 
afford us a comparatively safe, cheap, and rapid means of 
communication with neighboring States and Territories, 
with corresponding beneficial results. And, as for our 
crude laws and imperfect administration of them, our bad 
roads, our want of schools, and our difficulties with the 
Indians, time, perseverance, mutual forbearance, and the 
exercise of wisdom and justice will assuredly correct all 
these evils. 

"Having thus taken a hasty glance at the actual and pros- 
pective state of thing in this Territory, allow me to call the 
attention of the Legislative Assembly to some subjects which 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 491 

demand legislative action in order that the public good may 
be promoted. 

"The whole body of laws of this Territory needs revision 
and amendment, besides extension to objects now unprovided 
for; but a task of so great a magnitude cannot be well per- 
formed in the short space of 40 days, the timeallotted toyour 
session. To legislate hastily would be to legislate improvi- 
dently, and thus to add another chapter to the sad history of 
New Mexican legislation. 

"All you can effect of good, at this time, will to be correct 
glaring defects, in the existing laws, and to enact some new 
provisions, to enable officers, who are charged with the 
execution of the laws to discharge their respective duties 
with more advantage to the public. 

"The criminal laws need your attention. The tardy exe- 
cution of these laws, and the insecurity of the jails cause 
great expense to the counties, and afford ample opportunities 
for the escape of criminals. For the remedy of these things, 
I suggest that the jurisdiction of the alcalde's courts be 
extended so as to give them jurisdiction for the trial and 
punishment of all larcenies and all the disturbances of the 
peace. And that the notice for the holding of a special term 
of the circuit court for the trial of criminal cases may be 
reduced from 30 to 10 days at the discretion of the judge. 

"Prom information derived from various sources, I am 
induced to believe that there have been instances in different 
parts of the Territory, of gross neglect of official duty and of 
malfeasance in office. To correct this state of things legal 
provision should be made for the adequate punishment of all 
such offenders. 

"I also respectfully suggest for your consideration, 
whether it would not be productive of a more prompt and 
efficient discharge of official duty, if authority were given to 
the executive to dismiss at his discretion all delinquent and 
unfaithful officers, from prefect and sheriff down to alguacil; 
and to fill the vacancies thus created, until the next session 
of the legislature, at which time a nomination for the remain- 
ing time (until the next general election,) might be made to 
the legislative council. 



492 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

"I recommend the repeal of the law which authorizes the 
Hcensing of gambhng houses; and that the property of the 
poor shall be exempt from taxation, and also that the wear- 
ing apparel, and a certain amount of household property 
which is indispensable for the support of the family of the 
debtor shall be exempted from sale under execution for all 
debts that may be hereafter created. 

"The English language is the language of all the depart- 
ments of the government of the United States, and, in my 
opinion, ought to be the language in which the laws of the 
territory should be enacted. 

"But, as it may be considered a question of mere expedi- 
ency, I leave the question whether the laws should be passed 
in English or Spanish to be decided by you alone. Adopt 
whichever language you please, and I shall be content, but 
I protest, in advance, against the laws being passed as here- 
tofore, in duplicate. 

"Gentlemen: In a late communication to the War Depart- 
ment I have said that New Mexico was not so much a con- 
quered province, as a community that had voluntarily 
annexed itself to the United States, that you had surrendered 
to the invading force without a gun being tired on either side, 
while the force was insufficient for conquest had not annexa- 
tion been acceptable to you. I have also stated that you 
have been disappointed in your high expectations of advant- 
age from annexation, and that the laws and legal usages, 
which have been introduced from the states, are, in many 
particulars unsuited to the present condition and that dis- 
content is more or less prevalent. 

"I did not speak of your great losses of property by Indian 
depredations, since the time of annexation, but I spoke of 
the present insecurity of property from Indian depredations, 
and I admitted that all the cases of discontent might, per- 
chance, cause some disturbances of the peace in some partic- 
ular places, but I expressed the confident opinion, that the 
great mass of the people were, and would continue to be 
faithful to their allegiance to the United States under all 
trials; and that the idea of revolution was a chimera of heated 
imaginations only. These opinions, I am persuaded, will be 
fully endorsed by you all. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 493 

"I also urge upon all, to learn the English language, and to 
adopt all the customs of the United States that are suitable 
and proper for their country; but I do not advise them to 
change any of their beneficial or praiseworthy customs, nor 
do I advise them'to forget their parent stock, and the proud 
recollections that cluster around Castilian history. I do not 
advise them to disuse their beautiful language — to lay 
aside their dignified manners and punctilious attention, the 
proprieties of social life. And I sincerely hope, that the 
profound deference that is now paid to parents by their 
children, and the great respect paid to age by the young, will 
undergo no change. 

William Carr Lane. 
Santa Fe, N. M., December 7, 1852." 

Lane Takes Possession of the Disputed Territory. 

That portion of the Territory herein referred to was at that 
time exposed to the incursions of the Indians, and as the 
important towns of Las Cruces, Mesilla and other villages 
were within its area, Governor Lane thought that circum- 
stances demanded that he should take the step he did, in 
order to protect the inhabitants of those towns, and, accord- 
ingly, he issued the following proclamation: 

"Proclamation/' 

"Whereas: 1. A portion of the Territory on the west side 
of Rio Grande del Norte, thirty-four miles wide by one hun- 
dred and seventy miles long, be the same more or less, is now 
claimed by the United States of America, and by the Mex- 
ican Republic, respectively, under the provisions of the 
treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. 

"2. From the year 1824 and anterior thereto until the 
year 1851, this portion of territory was acknowledged to be 
within the limits of New Mexico, but in the year 1851 the 
state of Chihuahua assumed jurisdiction over the same, with-^ 
out producing any authority for this act, from the Republic 
of Mexico, and without having obtained the consent of the 
United States or the Territory of New Mexico, and in 
defiance of the remonstrance of a large portion of the inhab- 



494 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

itants of the disputed territory who then numbered about 
2,000 souls. 

"3. During the discussion of the boundary question, 
under the Treaty of Peace, the Commissioner of Mexico pro- 
posed to abandon a part of this disputed territory by divid- 
ing it between the tvv^o Republics: and during the year 1852, 
the United States virtually asserted a right of sovereignty 
over all the territory in dispute. 

"4. The claim of Chihuahua to this disputed territory, is 
believed to be based upon the unwarrantable assumption 
that the Board of Commissioners had agreed upon a bound- 
ary line between Chihuahua and New Mexico; and that their 
agreement in the premises was binding upon both the United 
States and the Mexican Republic, and, therefore, final; 
whereas a valid agreement had not been made, and has not 
yet been made, by said board; and, moreover, the action of 
the board has been virtually repudiated and nullified by the 
United States. 

"5. Each of the high contracting parties to the Treaty of 
Guadalupe ex rieces/tofe tacitly reserved the right to accept or 
reject the decisions of the Board of Boundary Commission- 
ers; and if the board had assigned the city of Chihuahua and 
the country north of it to the United States; or the city of 
Santa Fe and the country south of it to the Mexican Repub- 
lic, the action of the board would certainly have not been 
regarded as final. 

"6. Ever since the territory in question was thus forc- 
ibly and illegally annexed to the state of Chihuahua, that 
state has signally failed to protect the inhabitants of the 
territory in their rights of persons or of property, or of 
conscience, and moreover has not made a reasonable defense 
against border Indian depredations, and, thereby, prevented 
reclamations against the United States. 

"7. The present revolutionary condition of the Mexican 
Republic, precludes the hope of adequate protection being 
afforded by that republic, to the inhabitants in this disputed 
territory, for the time being; and a large portion of the 
inhabitants now claim the protection of the United States 
and solicit the re-annexation to New Mexico from which it 
was illegally wrested by the State of Chihuahua. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 495 

"Now, therefore, as the United States has been wrongfully 
deprived of the portion of the territory in question, even 
should the Mexican Republic have a rightful claim to it, 
which is denied; and, as by the law of nations, the United 
States is justly entitled to exercise jurisdiction over the same 
and protect the inhabitants thereof, in all their rights until 
the claim of the Mexican Republic shalhbe fully recognized by 
the United States and, as the probable time of the settlement 
of the boundary question is indefinitely postponed, and the 
interest of the United States and the rights of the inhabitants 
of the territory are inadequately protected, I, William Oarr 
Lane, governor of the Territory of New Mexico (upon my own 
official responsibility and without orders from the cabinet at 
Washington)do, hereby, in behalf of the United States, retake 
possession of the said disputed territory to be held provision- 
ally by the United States until the question of boundary shall 
be determined by the United States and the Mexican Repub- 
lic. And I do hereby require all civil and military officers of 
the United States and the Territory of New Mexico whom 
it may concern to execute the laws of the United States and 
of the Territory of New Mexico over the territory afore- 
said, which is provisionally attached to, and made a part 
of the County of Dona Ana, in the Territory of New 
Mexico. 

"And to the end that there may be no misunderstanding, 
on the part of the citizens of New Mexico as to the boundary 
line between the Territory of New Mexico and the state of 
Chihuahua, the same and well known boundary between this 
state and territory, as established by a decree of the Mexi- 
can congress of the 27th of July, 1824, as delineated upon 
Desurnell's Treaty map is hereby provisionally established; 
which boundary line has its initial point in the main channel 
of the Rio Grande above the dam of the Acquia Madrc 
across the Rio Grande and below Prontera eight miles more 
or less north of the town of El Paso. The said line to run 
from the Rio Grande and thence northwardly until it reaches 
the Rio Gila according to the provisions of the treaty afore- 
said. 

"In testimony whereof, I hereto subscribe my name, and 
cause the seal of the Territory to be affixed at the town of 



496 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Dona Ana, the 13th day of MarchA. D,,1853,and in the seventy- 
seventh year of the Independence of the United States. 

(L. S.) Wm. Carr Lane. 
By the Governor, John Greiner, Secretary. 
By MiGL A. Otero, Private Secretary." • 

Gadsden Treaty — The Civil War. 

The taking of possession of the territory under dispute 
was follovired by the purchase of said territory, the govern- 
ment of the United States paying Mexico the sum of $10, 000,- 
000 — the disputed territory was thus formally annexed 
to New Mexico in virtue of the treaty known as "The 
Gadsden Treaty," signed in Mexico on December 30th, 1853. 
By the consummation of said treaty no other important inci- 
dent or event occurred until the year 1861, when the Confe- 
deration of Southern States was formed which brought as a 
result the civil war, which closed on April 9th, 1865, with the 
surrender of General Lee to General Grant. This subject 
will be referred to in an another part of this work. 

First Railroad Survey. 

In the year 1854 the first survey was made for a railroad 
line designated by the name of "Pacific Railroad,"' which 
started from Rio Colorado and extended to Rio del Norte. In 
the next chapter we shall give an account of all the industries 
and other matters worthy of mention. 







c 



CHAPTER IX. 



Agriculture, Geography, Topography, Boundaries — Live Stock Indus- 
try — Civil War — War With the Apaches and Navajoe Indians — 
,War With Spain — Churches — Indians — Mineral Branch — Cop- 
per, Cold and Silver — Missions and Missionaries — ^Franciscans — 
Orphanages — Hospitals at Silver City, Albuquerque, Callup, Las 
Vegas and Deming. 

1853-1912. 



This chapter was written on the historical events which 
occurred from the 3^ear 1853 to the year of 1912, except mat- 
ters that need separate presentation, such as the statehood 
question, educational establishments and the economical 
development of the Territory; which matters shall be dealt 
with in separate chapters, and in another chapter wherein 
matters of a general character shall be attended to, alpha- 
betically detailing, so far as it may be possible, said events. 
Within said dates, the Territory developed more than in all 
its history from 1853 back, and, concerning that develop- 
ment, we shall now treat, commencing first with agriculture. 

Up to the year 1812, it is sufficient for us to consult the 
work of Don Pedro Bautista Pino, "Noticias Historicas," in 
order to know the exact condition of agricultu re and industry 
before and up to that date. The account follows, which Pino 
gives us upon that particular: 

Products of Its Agriculture and Industry — 1812. 

"The abandonment and the distance in which the province 
is found, together with the great dangers in the highways, 
by reason of the hostile tribes are, with so many others, 
causes which render the task impossible of making any 
exports out of even the agricultural products. Wine is the 
only product that yields som.e returns. To reckon the wealth 
of the agricultural branch there is no better standard than 
the total reached by the duties (tithes) or excise which is from 
9 to 10 duros (dollars) per hundred a year. This total would 



500 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

be very much higher, if the output, instead of being exported 
to Durango, should remain in the province. Its circulation 
would raise the value of the fruits gathered from the excise 
which, according to this approximate calculation, are, as 
follows : 

Corn fanegas (fanega-3 bushels) 3,000 

Wheat " 2,000 

Vegetables " 1,000 

Wool lbs. 25,000 

Cotton " 1,000 

Wine gallons 1,250 

Wethers and ewes, head 5,000 

Calves head 200 

Goats head 200 

Agricultural Returns — Manufactures of Woolen Goods — Pino Continu- 
ing. 
"No manufactures are known in this province except those 
of wool and cotton. Necessity has compelled the weaving of 
flannels, serge, blankets, heavy blankets, baizes, coarse 
stuffs, carpets, cotton hose, and table linen; bridles and 
spurs are also made. From a few years ago down to this 
date we have become acquainted there with fine looms for the 
manufacture of cotton, through an artist sent by the govern- 
ment who has taught the trade to several persons in a very 
short time. Pine, though, I call their product, it is only so 
as compared with what was formerly manufactured, since it is 
nothing more than a coarse texture as compared with the 
fine linen from China. The products of these hnes hardly 
yield a result in favor of the province beyond 60 duros per 
year; and even for the purpose of obtaining this return, the 
dealers are obliged to export their goods at their expense 
and risk, and to seek buyers in the other provinces." 
Pino continues his talk concerning agriculture, and says: 
"Agriculture, industry and commerce are the three bases 
of prosperity: but none of these are to be found in that pro- 
vince on account of its situation; on account also of the 
neglect with which the government has heretofore treated it 
and because of the shrinkage undergone by the small income 
it annually acquires from its fruits and manufactures. I 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 501 

have said that the introduction of goods for its annual use 
are worth 112 pesos (dollars) that only 60 pesos is the return, 
the result being then 52 pesos against it. The salaries paid 
by the public treasury to the governor of the province, his 
assistants and 121 soldiers are the only resources v^^hich 
keep up the circulation; but in such a meagre way that up 
to a short time ago, as already said, most of its inhabitants 
were not acquainted with money." 

Pino, in speaking of the indolence of the inhabitants of 
New Mexico occasioned by the frequent incursions of the 
Indians, says: 

"Agriculture is entirely abandoned for the inhabitants of 
that country do not dedicate themselves iconsiderably to 
planting, from which labor doubtless, they would derive 
many benefits. They scarcely plant as much as they believe 
necessary for their maintenance during a portion of the 
year, thus exposing themselves for the remainder of it to a 
thousand miseries; hence the reason that the price of grain 
values suffer many changes. 

"In the article, 'vegetable productions' an idea is already 
given concerning vegetables and vegetable gardens, where- 
fore it is useless to repeat that corn, wheat, beans, etc., are 
raised; a very good grade of cotton and plenty of tobacco are 
also grown. 

"Immense areas of natured-favored lands with good tem- 
peratures for agricultural productions, which ought to form 
the fortune of New Mexicans, are found abandoned because 
of the barbarous tribes occupying them, or because they are 
frequently invaded by them; but the peace which New 
Mexico should make with these foes would bring into her 
domain those valuable lands from which agriculture could 
receive an extraordinary impulse." * 

The Navajoe Raids — Development of Agriculture. 

From 1812 to 1848 agriculture and the other industries 
continued in the same condition as Pino described them in 
his time and even after 1848, although their development 
became more marked, in 1865, when the American govern- 
ment tinally succeeded in reducing the Navajoe Indian tribe 
* Pino: "Not. Hist.'" pp. 20-21. 



502 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

by transferring them as prisoners of war from the land they 
had inhabited from time immemorial to Bosque Redondo 
(Fort Sumner) where they remained until 1868, when they were 
allowed to return to their reservation. The Navajoe Indians 
by their continuous incursions and depredations, before their 
surrender kept all the industries entirely at a standstill. 
At the end of the civil war, and after the pacification of the 
Indians, New Mexico entered into the full development of 
its industries, all of them being pushed to a phenomenal 
degree, so much so that at the present time (1912) we are 
assured that no less than 45 per cent of its inhabitants are 
engaged in agriculture, all of them possessing, according to 
trustworthy data, over 11,834 farms with an acreage of tillable 
lands of 5,739,878 acres, the total value of said farms amount- 
ing to the sum of $53,737,825, and the value of the improve- 
ments amounting |20,b88,814. The cereals raised with more 
certainty are wheat, corn, potatoes, vegetables of all classes, 
alfalfa, beet-roots, tobacco, cotton, all of its products being of 
such good quality that in the World's Fair Exposition held at 
Chicago, (1893) the wheat raised in New Mexico received the 
first premium, and, at the Buffalo Pan-American Exposition, 
New Mexico'^s agricultural and horticultural exhibit re- 
ceived two gold medals, three bronze medals and five special 
mention certificates, and in the exposition held at St. Louis, 
when the Louisiana purchase was being celebrated, the 
peaches from New Mexico received the tirst premium, 
despite the competition of California'sfamous peaches, so that 
in the horticultural branch also the fruit of New Mexico 
may be considered as good, if not better, than that of the 
richest and most populous states. What has been said 
suffices to demonstrate the flourishing condition of the agri- 
cultural branch in New Mexico in our epoch. Let us now 
consider her geography, topography, boundaries, wars and 
her industry, and her live stock resources. * 

Geography, Topography and Boundaries. 

Before New Mexico became part of the United States her 
geographical and topographical description was the following, 
according to Pino: 

* Pino: "Not. Hist "' p. 9. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 503 

"From north to south it had 340 leagues, and from east to 
west, 350, its boundaries being on the north, with Louisiana 
and other territories whose names have not as yet been tixed. 
On the south, with the Provinces of New Viscay, Sinaloa and 
the New Kingdom of Leon. On the east, with the Provinces 
of Coahuila and Texas, and on the west, with Sonora."' 

According to Escudero,* "the Territory of New Mexico was 
one of the most remote parts of the repubhc; it lies on 
the extreme north, and its geographical extension is com- 
prised from 33^ to 40- latitude, it has 185 leagues from north 
to south, and almost the same from east to west, its confines 
on the north are by land absolutely unknown to us; on the 
east, the States of Coahuila and Texas and the Territory of 
Arkansas belonging to the United States of America; on the 
south, it is bounded by the State of Chihuahua, and on the 
west, by that of Sonora. Nothing definite can be said regard- 
ing its elevation over the sea level and other matters relative 
to its position for lack of data for that purpose." 

Arizona Organized. 

Until the year 1863, when the Territory of Arizona was 
formed from the western part of New Mexico, the boundaries 
of New Mexico on the west extended as far as the State of 
Sonora, and on the north, until the year 1867, it included the 
Counties of Archuleta, Conejos and Durango, and part of Las 
Animas, which form now part of the State of Colorado; that is 
to say, in the year 1863, all that portion of territory west of 
longitude 109- was segregated by Congress, and from it was 
formed the now State of Arizona; and in 1867, the territory 
north of latitude 37 ' was annexed to Colorado, so that the 
boundaries of New Mexico at the present epoch, 1912, are: 
On the north, parallel 37; on the south, parallel 32; on the east, 
meridian 103; on the west, meridian 109; or. geographically 
speaking, it is bounded on the north, by Colorado and Utah; 
on the east, by Texas and Oklahoma; on the south, by Texas 
and the Republic of Mexico; on the west, by Arizona. Let us 
now treat of the live stock industry. 

* Escudero- "Estadistica de Varies Estados," p. 13. 



504 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Live Stock Industry — Governor Narbona s Report 

From what the reader has read in the preceding chapters 
he will remember that the live stock and horse raising in- 
dustry could not be developed under the governments of 
Spain and Mexico for the reasons given in the preceding 
paragraphs; despite of that fact, Governor Antonio Narbona 
in the year 1827, made a detailed report to the Mexican 
government of the condition of the live stock and horse rais- 
ing branch up to that date, and Barreiro included said report, 
in his own official report to the Mexican government in the 
year 1884; * and the same is hereinwith reproduced that the 
difference may be observed between the development of said 
industrial branch of those epochs and ours. Narbona's 
report on opposite page. 

In this report we see that there were at that date (1827) 
5,000 head of cattle, 240,000 head of sheep, same being 
then valued as follows: The sheep at $120,000, and the 
cattle at |40,000; we also saw that the number of horses was 
550, valued at $5,500; the number of mules, 2,150, valued at 
$63,750, and the number of mares was 300, valued at $2,400. 
In our times, (1912) according to the latest official statistics, 
we have over 1,050,000 head of cattle, over 5,875,000 head of 
sheep, more than 150,000 goats, no less than 100,000 head of 
horses, the sheep yielding annually a total product of nearly 
25,000,000 pounds of wool. 

We shall now treat of the wars in which New Mexico has 
figured from the time of the change of flags down to our 
days. 

Wars- 

The reader doubtless, is familiar with the history of the 
civil war between the northern and southern states, caused 
by the question of slavery, from the year 1861 to 1865. That 
fact taken for granted, we shall limit ourselves to relate 
briefly, the part which New Mexico took in that war without 
further delving into its causes, origin and consequences. 

* Barreiro: En. Fino "Not. Hist." p. 24. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OP NEW MEXICO. 



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506 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Civil War. 

When hostilities formally broke out in 1861, the federal 
government had little or no confidence in the patriotism of 
the sons of New Mexico, or, at least, it treated them with 
the same indifference they had been treated by the govern- 
ments of Spain and Mexico. It is true that it kept troops in 
the Territory to hold the Navajoes and the rest of the nomadic 
tribes of savage Indians in submission, because it had as- 
sumed that obligation by the terms of the treaty of Guadalupe 
Hidalgo. That is, at least, what such historians as Bancroft, 
Haines and others tell us about that matter. Haines says: 
"When the military divisions were being designated for 
west of the Alleghanies, the Department of New Mexico, 
which included New Mexico only, was entrusted to Col. 
R. S. Camby; but no expenditure of money was authorized, 
and no troops were mustered in for its defense, for it was 
not believed that the far west would be exposed to attacks 
from the enemy; yet this was precisely the point that was 
threatened, and only the faithfulness and loyalty of the sons 
of New Mexico spared the nation a crushing calamity."* 

The above noted authority was referring to the attack 
made by the Texans through the south of New Mexico in 
which they had so well succeeded that they even took Santa 
F^, the Capital of New Mexico. 

New Mexico's Patriotism. 

During the civil war to which we have been referring, it 
was proved, or, to state it better, the sons of New Mexico 
proved their patriotism to the American government even 
more than did the other States and Territories of the Union. 
Scarcely thirteen years had come and gone from the date in 
which fate had separated them from the mother country, 
the Mexican Republic, when the bloody, fratricidal war 
between the northern and the southern States broke out, 
and the sons of New Mexico threw themselves unhesitatingly^ 
to the number of 6000 into the field of honor to fight the 
battles for the preservation of the American government, to 

*Haines' "Hist, of New Me.xico,'' p. 222. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 507 

which they had adhered voluntarily, sealing with their blood 
the oath they had given for the perpetuation of the American 
Union. 

An American historian speaking of the patriotism of the 
sons of New Mexico in that war, says: 

"The Territory contributed with 6U00 volunteers to the 
armies of the Union between the years 1861 and 1865. The 
military service to which they were assigned was of the 
hardest and most arduous, as it included long marches, and 
unnumbered toils having at the same time to deal both with 
the confederate armies, and to engage continuously with the 
savage Indians. In that sort of service neither enthusiasm 
nor patriotism could be expected from them. 

"The troops of New Mexico, however by means of their 
heroism furnished to the history of the war one of its bright- 
est pages through the heroism displayed in the battle of 
Apache Canon, on the 22nd of March, 1862, where they fought 
against the southern troops which had already taken the 
Capital, Santa Fe, and were* marching on Port Union, Gen- 
eral Sibley being in command of the confederates, and 
Colonel Slough in command of the federal troops. The 
battle resulted in favor of the Union troops compelling the 
Texans to abandon the Territory." * 

In the battle referred to by the quoted author, the fate of 
the war was determined, as Haines (supra) has said; for had 
not the confederates been routed in that battle they would 
most assuredly have taken Port Union, and thus secured a 
great advantage over the federal troops. 

GoL Manuel Chavez the Hero of the Glorieta Battle. 

The said quoted author is not sufficiently impartial in giv- 
ing credit to whom in justice the credit of that victory 
belongs. Lieutenant Colonel Don Manuel Chavez was the 
hero of that memorable event, for he it was who, with a small 
escort of New Mexican soldiers, traversed the mountains 
in the thickest part of the battle and arrived at the place 
where the Texans had their camp and wagons with their 
provisions of war. He set both camp and wagons on fire, 

*Ritch's "New Mexico." 



508 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

thus destroying not only their equipages of war, but also 
their food supply and insuring, by means of that intrepid 
exploit, the victory of the federal troops. 

Many were the native officers of New Mexico who acquired 
distinction in that war, among them we shall mention 
Col. Don Francisco P. Abreu,Col. JosePranciscoChavez, Capt, 
Don Rafael Chacon, Capt. Nicolas Quintana, Capt. Saturnino 
Baca, and Major J. D. Sena Sr., and among the old American 
residents of New Mexico, the one who most distinguished 
himself during the war was Colonel Kit Carson. 

War With the Apache and Navajoe Indians — Capture of Geronimo — 
Treaty with the Navajoes. 

In order to subdue the tribes of the Navajoe and Apache 
Indians, the American government was obliged to go to the 
expense of more than $50,000,000, and keep up an army in 
continuous warfare from the year 1849 to the year 1886, 
when the Navajoes finally surrendered in New Mexico as did 
the Apaches in New Mexico and Arizona; that is to say, the 
final submission of the Navajoes, as we have already said 
elsewhere in this chapter, was effected in the year 1868, and 
that of the Apaches in 1886, when General Nelson A. Miles 
succeeded in capturing the dreaded Indian chief, Ger6nimo, 
who was on that same year taken, with all his captains and 
other Indians to Port Marion in the State of Plorida. From 
that year on the incursions of the Indians ceased forever 
and the people of New Mexico were enabled to enter upon the 
most complete development of all its industries. 

Before treating of the third and last war of our times, the 
war with Spain, the author takes leave to recall to the reader 
the treaty which the Navajoe Indians made with Colonel Doni- 
phan in 1846, with the only object of proving that the good 
faith of the Navajoes and of the other savage tribes was not 
what Doniphan and his comtemporaries affirmed, but that they 
had jeered at Doniphan in the same manner they had jeered 
at the Mexican and Spanish governors. There are many 
other incidents occasioned by the incursions of the Indi&,ns 
in certain localities, which should be related, but, as we are 
now treating about real hostilities, we shall leave those 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 509 

incidents for another part of this work, and shall now en- 
deavor to give the reader the necessary information regard- 
ing the war witli Spain. 

War With Spain — The Rough Riders. 

On April 21st, in the year 1898, war was declared between 
our government and the government of Spain, occasioned 
by the destruction of the battleship "Maine" in the waters 
of Havana. That war closed on April 11th, of the year follow- 
ing, 1899, with the defeat of Spain and the loss to that power 
of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippine Islands. In that 
war, too, the sons of New Mexico again demonstrated their 
disinterested patriotism to the American flag— a patriotism 
that has, perhaps, no parallel in the annals of universal his- 
tory, for the sons of New Mexico, the Spanish-Americans, 
who went to that war were all descendants from the first 
Spaniards who conquered New Mexico, and it was but 
natural to expect that they should, at least cherish in their 
hearts, the natural sympathy inherent in persons of the 
same race. Despite all that, they did not hesitate in responding 
with a good will to the call made upon them to take up arms 
in defense of their flag by sending to the field of battle more 
soldiers, in proportion to their population, than any other 
state in the Union, and having sent from among them the 
famous mounted company known as "Roosevelt's Rough 
Riders" who fought with distinction in the battle at Santiago 
de Cuba. Let us now treat of the different churches, or reli- 
gions that have co-operated in the Christianization of New 
Mexico. 

Churches — First Protestant Minister — Bishop Juan B. Lamy and His 
Successors. 

Up to the year 1840, the only church which existed in New 
Mexico, from the time of the conquest, was the Catholic 
church. In fact to that church is due the civilization and 
Christianization of the Indians of New Mexico, and the devel- 
opment effected by the Spanish colonies in the Territory. 
The reader has already been informed concerning the great 
good done by that church to the country from the time of the 
discovery and conquest of New Mexico, Respecting the 



510 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

benefits bestowed by it after the change of flags took place, 
the reader will be informed in another part of this work. 

With the change of flags, religious toleration was introduced 
into New Mexico, a thing unknown until that date. Towards 
the close of the year 1849, the first Protestant minister, Rev. 
Henry W. Reed, of the Baptist creed, entered Santa Fe. 
Until that year, it may be said, the Catholic church had been 
subject, ecclesiastically speaking, to the Episcopate of Duran- 
go. In the year following. Pope Pius IX, by apostolic decree, 
on April 23rd, appointed asapostolic vicarofsaid vicariate with 
the title of Bishop of Agathonica, the Rev. Juan B. Lamy, 
who was at the time airiest at Cincinnati. Vicar Lamy 
received his episcopal consecration at Cincinnati on November 
24tb of the same year, and early the next year he started for 
Santa Fe reaching that point in the summer of the year 1851. 
At Santa F6 he was confronted by serious obstacles due to 
the refusal of the Mexican priests to recognize his authority 
before being informed of the change of ecclesiastical author- 
ity, by the bishop of Durango, who was the only authority 
which, to that date, they had recognized. The anomalous 
situation neither surprised nor discouraged Vicar Lamy, 
who, without blaming the Mexican priests, and, in order to 
do away with the difiiculties, undertook a trip to Durango in 
order to present his credentials to the Mexican bishop, hav- 
ing had to traverse a long, toilsome and perilous distance on 
account of the savage Indians. At Durango^he was received 
by the Mexican bishop with all courtesy and attentions due 
to the visiting prelate. He received credentials from the 
bishop of Durango and returned to New Mexico where he 
immediately entered upon the discharge of his duties,* which 
he faithfully discharged for the- glory of the church and 
benefit of New Mexico until the year 1885, his age no longer 
allowing him to bear the onerous burden. He resigned the post 
and retired to his private property where he remained until 
February 14, 1888, when he died, being at that date arch- 
bishop of Santa Fe. His successors were the Most Illustrious 
Archbishops J. B. Salpointe, P. Chapelle, Peter Bourgade, 
and the actual Archbishop Don Juan B. Pitaval. Of the many 

* Salpointe: "Soldiers of the Cross." 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 511 

benefits that came to New Mexico, with the change of govern- 
ments, the greatest was the coming of Archbishop Lamy, for 
to him, and to him alone, belongs the honor of having been 
the best friend of the sons of New Mexico. In another part 
of this work we shall speak in detail concerning that holy 
man, so as to close up the subject which we have been 
explaining in this chapter. 

Archbishops Salpointe, Chapelle, Bourgade and PitavaL 

The first thing Archbishop Lamy did after he had assumed 
the charge of his vicariate was to make an extended visit 
throughout the whole Territory with the object of becoming 
acquainted with the precise situation of all the curates and 
missions of the Territory, re-organizing, as his next step, the 
ecclesiastical government under the new regime and placing 
the vicariate under the protection of Saint Francis of Assisi. 
In 1875, Bishop Lamy was consecrated to the Archiepiscopal 
See or Archdiocese of Santa F6, with jurisdiction over the 
whole of New Mexico excepting the counties of Dona Ana, 
and afterwards. Grant and Eddy, which, despite their being 
within the limits of New Mexico, belong to the Episcopate of 
Arizona. On June 20th, 1869, Bishop J. B. Salpointe was 
appointed Bishop of Arizona, and on the 22nd of April, 1884, 
as coadjutor of Archbishop Lamy. He succeeded the Most 
Illustrious Archbishop Lamy after the death of the latter, 
receiving the Archiepiscopal consecration on July 18th, 1885, 
and acting as Archbishop until January 7th, 1894, when he 
delivered the active charge to his coadjutor. Bishop P. 
Chapelle, who had been appointed to such post on November 
1st, 1891. Archbishop Salpointe died July 15th, 1898, and 
Chapelle was proclaimed his successor on January 7th, 1894, 
and was transferred to New Orleans on December 1st, 1897, 
where he died on August 6th,' 1905, the victim of yellow fever, 
Don Pedro Bourgade, Bishop of Arizona succeeded Arch- 
bishop Chapelle, continuing as Archbishop until May 17th, 
1908, which was the date of his death. The Most Illustrious 
JuanB. Pitaval, Bourgade's successor assumed the charge of 
the Archdiocesis. He had acted as coadjutor of Bourgade 
from July 25th, 1902, was promoted to the Archiepiscopal 



512 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

See on Januury 3rd, 1909, and proclaimed archbishop on 
April 24:th, 1909, and is worthily acting in that capacity at 
the present time. 

Catholic Church s Organization at This Time. 

The organization of the Catholic Church, or the Archdiocese 
of Santa Fe, in the Territory is, as follows: At Santa Fe, 
the Capital, resides the Most Illustrious Archbishop Pitaval, 
and in charge of the parish is the Vicar General, Monsignor 
Antonio Fourchegu, having under his charge six missions, 
the Convent of Loretto and the Indian School of Saint Cathe- 
rine. The other parish of Santa Fe, the Capital, is Our Lady 
of Guadalupe under the charge of the Rev. Antonio Besset 
with six missions. Saint Michael's College under the charge 
of the chaplain. Rev. J. L. Doherty. The parishes outside 
of the Capital, all of which have several missions, are: Albu- 
querque, Rev. A. M. Mandalari, S. J.; Old Albuquerque, 
under the charge of Rev, C. M. Capilupi, S. J.; Antonchico, 
under the charge of Rev. Catignol; Belen, under the charge 
of Rev. J. A. Picard; Bernalillo, under the charge of Rev. J. 
J. Splinters; Blanco, under the charge of Rev, J. M. Garnier; 
Bueyeros, under the charge of Rev. C. Lammert; Chaperito, 
under the charge of Rev. P. Lantard; Costilla, under the 
charge of Rev. Cipriano Bar ran; El Rito, under the charge of 
Father Jose Pajot; Folsom, under the charge of Rev. Dum- 
arest; Gallup, under the charge of Rev. Florentino Myers, 
O. F. M.; Isleta, under the charge of Rev. A. Docher: Jemes, 
under the charge of Rev. Barnabas Myers, O. F. M.; Las 
Vegas, under the charge of Rev. Paul Gilberton: with a 
private oratory of the Society of Jesus, under the charge of 
Rev, J. Marra, S. J, and the Revds. A, Leone, S. J., J. 
Artuis, S. J,, and P. Dallas, S, J.; East Las Vegas, under 
the charge of Rev. Adriano Rabeyrolle; Lincoln, under the 
charge of Rev. J. H. Girma; Manzano, under the charge of 
Rev. J. Gauthier; Monticello, under the charge of Rev. Q. G. 
Bertrom; Mora, under the charge of Rev. C. Baland; Park 
View, under the charge of Rev. E. Paulham; Pena Blanca, 
under the charge of the Franciscan Fathers with Rev. 
Francis Stuerenber, O. F. M., as superior: Penasco, under 
the charge of Rev. Leo De La Velle; Puerto de Luna, under 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 513 

the charge of Rev. J. Pugens; Raton, under the charge 
of Rev. J. B. W. Cooney; Roswell, under the charge of Rev. 
Adalberto Rolfes, O. F M.; with a Chapelle for Mexican 
Parishioners under the charge of Rev. Teodoro, O. F. M.; 
San Antonio, under the charge of Rev. G. Charrie; San Juan 
de Los Caballeros, under the charge of Rev. Camilo Seux; 
San Marcial, under the charge of Rev. J. Peltzer; San 
Miguel, under the charge of Rev. J. P. Moog; Santa Cruz, 
under the charge of Rev. G. Haelterman; Sapello, under the 
charge of Rev. Krager; Socorro, under the charge of Rev. 
P. H. Martin; Springer, under the charge of Rev. Antonio 
Celher; Taos, under the charge of Rev. Jos4 Giraud; Tom^, 
under the charge of Rev. J. B. RaUiere, (the oldest priest in 
New Mexico;) Watrous, under the charge of Rev. Oilier. 

Catholic Institutions of Learning. 

The Catholic church in New Mexico has the following seats 
or institutions of learning: At Santa Fe, the College of the 
Christian Brothers, under the charge of Brother Edwards, 
Academy of Our Lady of Light, under the charge of the 
Sisters of Loretto, the Industrial School of St. Catherine for 
boys and girls, under the charge of the Sisters of the Most 
Holy Sacrament. It has similar institutions at Bernalillo, 
Las Vegas, Albuquerque, Jemes, Mora, Pena Blanca, Ros- 
well, Socorro and Taos. In East Las Vegas it has the "Saint 
Anthony's Sanatorium," under the charge of the Sisters of 
Charity. 

Protestant Churches. 

The Methodist Episcopalian church, also established its 
worship at Santa F6 towards the close of the year 1351 send- 
ing as its minister Rev. E. G. Nicholson, who had to abandon 
the charge before the expiration of two years for want of 
members. The Presbyterians opened a church in Santa Fe 
in the same year, 1851, sending Rev. W. J. Kephardt, who 
also, through unknown causes, abandoned the ministry and 
undertook the publication of a newspaper, the "Santa Fe 
Gazette." From this date on Protestant churches have been 
established in the Capital and other parts of the Territory, 
with several mission houses and schools, there being in the 



514 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Capital at the present time the following churches: One 
Presbyterian, one Methodist, one Episcopalian, or of "The 
Holy Faith," this last one having been established on July 4, 
1873, by Rev. A. H. De Mora, but was without any place of 
worship until the year 1879, when Governor L. Bradford 
Prince initiated a movement for the construction of a church, 
with such success, that by the year 1882, the present hand- 
some building whi(;h said church has in Santa Fe today had 
already been erected. It is built of chiseled rock, in the 
Gothic style, and at a cost of not less than |8,000 or $10,000. 
Thus the Capital has seven churches and a beautiful cathe- 
dral, that is, the cathedral which is the principal Catholic 
church, built at a cost of over $150,000, and is the finest build- 
ing of its class west of the State of Missouri; the ancient 
church of Guadalupe, also Catholic; that of San Miguel, con- 
structed by ODate in 1606, and used to this day for divine 
worship by the Brothers of Saint Michael's College; the 
chapel of the Sisters of Loretto, a most beautiful edifice, 
made of rock, in the Gothic style, and at a cost of $75,000; 
and, in addition, two other chapels of the Sisters of Charity, 
and that of the Sisters of St. Catherine, also very elegant, 
and of a very high cost. We shall now turn our attention to 
the Indians of New Mexico. 



Indi 



lans. 



With the information which the reader has concerning the 
different kinds of Indians which have inhabited New Mexico, 
we shall not treat this matter in detail again, but shall con- 
fine ourselves to giving a succinct description of them since 
they were subdued by the Spaniards. The Pueblo Indians 
are now practically, in the same condition they were when 
found by the Spaniards at the epoch of the discovery and 
conquest, viz: Taos, Jemes, Santa Clara, Picuris, San 
Ildefonso, San Juan, Pojoaque, Nambe, Tesuque, Cochiti, 
Zia, Santo Domingo, San Felipe, Sandia, Isleta, Zuni, Acoma, 
but quite a number of the original pueblos are not in exis- 
tence today as the reader is already aware of the missing 
pueblos being, of Pecos, Tanos, and Santa Ana and others. 
Said Pueblo Indians, so far as relates to civilization, and 
despite the efforts of the Franciscan Fathers during the 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 515 

governments of Spain and Mexico, which efforts were con- 
tinued with the same, if not greater earnestness by the Most 
Illustrious Archbishop Lamy and his successors, and by the 
American government expending large sums of money in 
efforts to civilize them, are actually almost in their primitive 
condition owing to the fact that they do not want to abandon 
their diabolical customs. Don Pedro Bautista Pino, in the 
exposition which he made to the Spanish congress in 1812, at 
Cadiz, complained that the said Indians, after having been for 
more than 200 years indoctrinated and taught in the arts and 
industries by the Franciscan Fathers, did not improve nor 
wished to abandon their customs, and, now, or 90 years after 
Pino made his said exposition, they are in the same if not 
worse, condition. As the picture of them then drawn by 
Pino is the same that might be drawn now, the author repro- 
duces Pino's words: 

Pino on the Indians of New Mexico. 

"All these pueblos, despite the sway which religion 
has exercised over them, cannot forget a portion of 
dogmas transmitted to them by tradition, and they take 
scrupulous care to teach them to their descendants; 
hence their worships of the sun, the moon, and other 
celestial bodies, the respect they have for fire, etc., etc. * 

Let us now hear the account given of them by a priest of 
our times who lived among them at the pueblo of Jemez 
indoctrinating them for over twelve years. Rev. Father 
Mariller, quoted by Archbishop Salpointe in his work "Sol- 
diers of the Cross," page 19, says: 

"My opinion is that these Indians, despite their being 
ostensibly Catholics, secretly practice every sort of 
superstitious and ancient ceremonies. If they worship 
more than one Deity, I do not know, but I am, indeed 
certain that for them Moctezuma, possesses divine 
powers, for some of them have told me that what we call 
God is no other than Moctezuma, the name being the 
only difference. They worship the sun but I could never 
ascertain whether or not they considered itas a divinity." 

* Pino, "Not. Historicas."' 



516 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Actually, and for over twenty years past the government 
has treated these Indians, and the savage tribes, paternally, 
establishing schools and shops in their pueblos and reserva- 
tions, in order to educate them and to teach them a trade 
with the object of civilizing them to the degree that they may 
be enabled to assume the responsibilities of free citizenship; 
but without any other success than what was obtained by 
the Franciscans after more than 200 years of continuous 
vigils and sacrifices. The Indians of the savage tribes who 
still live in New Mexico, under reservation, and under the 
protection of the government, are the Apaches, the Yutas, 
and the Navajoes. All these tribes are engaged in stock 
raising and in the cultivation of their lands, performing the 
latter task with reluctance and on a very limited scale. With 
this review we close the subject about the Indians^ and we 
should here discuss the industrial branch of our history but 
shall leave that subject for the chapter corresponding to 
commerce and economical conditions. 

Mineral Branch. 

The mineral branch did not receive any impetuous worthy 
of mention during the 27 years regime of the Mexican gov- 
ernment over New Mexico, and as the Spaniards had, many 
years before that date, practically abandoned the industrj'-- 
because it was not possible for them to work the mines and 
fight the Indians at the same time, the mineral branch 
remained at a stand still until after the annexation. It is not 
known how many years before Pino went as delegate to 
Spain, that the mines had been n6glected, but certainly it 
must have been for a long time, for Pino in alluding to the 
abandonment, says in his exposition to the Spanish Congress: 

"In this province mines have been found closed, some 
of them with work tools inside; but it is not known at 
what time they were discovered and worked. There are 
many mineral veins in the mountains of gold and silver, 
as well as of copper, iron, and lead, etc. Some assays 
have been made of all these metals, and it is said that 
silver does not yield well except by treatment with 
mercury, for by tire it all evaporates. If the prov- 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 517 

ince should be moderately protected, all those mines 
would again be worked and the public treasury would 
perhaps receive many thousands of its fifths which it 
does not get today because the mines are neglected. * 

Goal Mines. 

From the year in which the Navajoe tribe was subdued, 
concerning which event the reader has already been informed, 
the mineral industry came into full development; although 
coal mines had been worked since the year 1863, in the 
County of Socorro, but the real development did not start 
until the year 1896, in that year the second coal mine at 
Madrid, County of Santa Fe, having been discovered. This 
was followed by the discovery of other very rich coal mines, 
at Hagan, Raton, Dawson, Gallup, Maxwell City and other 
points of the Territory. The federal inspector in his report 
to the government in the year 190-1, states that the coal lying 
in the mines of New Mexico can be reckoned at 9,000,000,000 
tons, the Counties of Colfax, McKinley and Santa Fe, being 
the principal, or richest counties in that class of mineral. 

Copper, Gold and Silver — Humboldt in New Mexico. 

Baron A. de Humboldt early in the nineteenth century, on 
his return to Germany from South America and Mexico, 
stopped at Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he stayed for three 
months examining its mountains, and, after he had returned 
to his native land, wrote his celebrated work, "Political Essay 
on New Spain," in three volumes in which he speaks very 
extensively of the wealth of the republics to the south of us, 
Mexico, Central and South America, and, after saying that 
in the mountains of those republics fabulous riches exist, 
affirms that in the mountains of New Mexico "are hidden 
the riches of the world,'" f and, according to oflScial statistics, 
Humboldt did not make a mistake in what he said, for almost 
all the known minerals, have been discovered in New Mexico; 
copper in the Counties of Grant, Santa Fe, Dona Ana, Rio 

* Pino: "Not. Hist." p. 65. Pino did not know of Chamuscado 
having discovered mines near Socorro in 1581 (ante) — The Author. 
t Humboldt: "Ensayo Politico," Vol. 3. 



518 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Arriba, San Miguel, Otero, Luna, Valencia, Socorro, Colfax, 
Sandoval, Union, Taos and Mora. This metal, to the year 
1897, had produced 700,000 pounds, and from that year to 
the j^ear 1912, the copper mines have produced 75,000,000 
pounds. Gold is found in nearly all the counties of the State, 
but the richest in that metal are those of Taos, Colfax and 
Santa F6. The total output of this metal has reached $1,000,000 
a year. Silver, also, is found in all the counties of the State, 
specially in the Counties of Sierra and Grant; this metal, 
hov^ever, owing to its depreciation in our republic, is not now 
very extensively mined, yet, there has been taken out from 
the silver mines of New Mexico during the last fifteen years 
about $6,000,000. The other minerals, zinc, lead, iron and 
mica also abound in New Mexico, but have not been developed 
as much as those we have already mentioned. The zinc 
mineral according to the statistics alluded to, produces 
$900,000 a year. The lead mines have produced, on an 
average, as much as 12,000 tons a year. This mineral has 
been discovered only in the Counties of Santa F6, Socorro, 
Doiia Ana, Grant, San Miguel and Luna. 

Iron, though it is knowm to exist in all the counties of the 
Territory, it has been worked less than the other minerals, 
there being only one mine under development in the 
county of Grant which is said to have yielded as much as 
100,000 tons in a year. Mica, which is not very plentiful in 
other parts of the Union is found in large deposits in. New 
Mexico, the principal of them being near Petaca, in the 
county of Rio Arriba. There is also plenty of that metal in 
the county of Santa Fe, the inhabitants of the capital having 
used it for many years before the change of governments, as 
Pike tells us in his account when he was brought to Santa 
Fe as a prisoner by order of Governor Alencaster (ante) in 
1806. Speaking on that subject Pike says that he observed 
that mica (talco) was used instead of glass in windows. 

Missions and Missionaries— Jesuits — Fathers Kino and Salvatierra and 
Their Successors — ^Missions in California, Sonora, Arizona, etc. 

In the foregoing chapters we have given a detailed account 
of the apostolic labors of the Franciscan Fathers prior to and 
from the time of the conquest to the time when the authority 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



519 



of the Spanish government ceased in Mexico, in 1821, inci- 
dentally mentioning the coming of some Jesuit Fathers into 
New Mexico; but we did not mention one of the greatest 
apostles of those times. Father Eusebio Kino who, early in 
the year 1700, preached the gospel in the extreme west of 



/ 




His Grace, the late Bishop Machebeuf, of Denver, Colorado. First Vicar of Kew 
Mexico in 1851 and afterwards Bishop of Colorado. 



New Mexico, or in what forms today the Territory of Arizona. 
Father Kino is worthy of special mention for having by him- 
self alone, performed as wonderful deeds as those recorded 
to the credit of the Franciscans of that epoch — for that 
reason we will here give the history of the labors of this holy 

man. * ■ 

* Archives of the Society of Jesus. 



520 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Father Eusebio Kino was a native of Trent, the Capital of 
South Tirol, a province of Austria. His veneration for the 
great apostle of the Indies made him take the name of 
Francis. He ovt^ed him his life, and the constant remem- 
brance of his name inspired him with the same zeal and 
fervor for the conversion of the Gentiles in the far off mis- 
sions of India. Filled with that intention he refused the 
honor conferred on him by the Duke of Baviera, as professor 
of mathematics in the University of Ingolstadt. Being 
received in the Society of Jesus he asked and obtained leave 
to be sent to the Indian missions of America. His first 
mission was in California. By order of his provincial, Fr. 
Bernardo Parto, he went with Fr. Matias Cogni in the expe- 
dition organized by Admiral Don Bernardo de Pinadero to 
the conquest and colonization of that country. The expedi- 
tion sailed under the command of Don Isidoro de Atondo y 
Antillon on the 17th of January, 1663, from the harbor of 
Chacala and laid anchor on the Bay of La Luz at the end of 
two weeks journey. The Spaniards did not remain there 
long, but sailed for 60 miles on the gulf, to which they gave 
the name of San Bruno, on account of the day on which it 
was first occupied. The Indians of this neighborhood were 
different in idiom and manners. They manifested great 
interest in learning something from the strangers. Father 
Kino promised himself great success in evangelizing the 
natives but the settlement was abandoned because of the 
aridity of the place. 

On returning to Mexico, Father Kino petitioned his pro- 
vincial to send him again to California to complete the task 
of conversion already commenced. His petition was denied, 
and he was ordered to the perilous missions of Sonora and 
Pimeria. On November 20th. 1686, he left Mexico, going 
first to Guadalajara to obtain a decree from the "Real 
Audiencia" to the effect that no converted Indian should be 
employed in the mines during the first five years after his 
conversion. Arrived at Sonora, he proceeded to form his 
missions. He founded the missions of Dolores, San Ignacio, 
San Jose and "Nuestra Sefiora de los Remedios.'" Here he 
met Father Jose Maria Salvatierra. The two great mission- 
aries determined that one should open anew the missions of 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 521 

California, while the other should facilitate the work by 
keeping the communication open with that deserted land. 
The means of doing this would be by the construction of a 
vessel to take provisions from Pimeria to California. The 
constructor would be Father Kino. It was only at the close 
of two years that Father Kino was able to commence the 
work. He had been so busy in his missionary voyages to 
the different tribes, among the Pimas of southern Arizona, 
that he could not begin the work until the 21st of March, 
1694. After celebrating mass on that day, he began with the 
aid of Captain Juan Mateo Mange and twenty native carpen- 
ters to cut down trees in the vicinity of Caberca. He would 
have finished the work, had not the provincial intervened. 
The good missionary obeyed, and availed himself of the inter- 
ruption to make a trip to the Gila river, about which he heard 
some converted Indians, of San Javier del Bac, speak. He 
said mass in one of the great buildings (Casas Grandes) 
which he saw there. He made in 1697 a new effort, this time 
accompanied by Captain Cristoval Martin de Bernal. In 
1699, in the company of Father Gilg and Captain Juan Mateo 
de Mange, Father Kmo penetrated beyond the confluence of 
the Colorado and Gila rivers. With the aid of an interpreter 
he preached at Yuma, Opas, Coromaricopas, and other 
points. He would have remained longer with these savages, 
had it not been for a heavy indisposition which obliged him 
to return to his mission of Dolores. At the close of the same 
year, he undertook the apostolic journey to the same tribes, 
accompanied by two priests sent by the Visitor General to 
examine the state of the mission of Arizona. In 1700 he 
laid the foundation of the great church named after the 
apostle of the Indies, Saint Xavier del Bac. He subsequently 
made another excursion into the Gila river. Thence he went 
to the Santa Clara Mound, from which he made his observa- 
tions of the altitude of the Gila river and of its junction with 
the Colorado. He also discovered that California was a 
peninsula. In one of his voyages he discovered the Island 
of Tiburon. In 1701 he made two expeditions to the Colorado 
river. Having returned to his mission of Dolores, he made 
preparations for another extensive exploration of Arizona, 
and on February 5th of 1702, accompanied by Father Manuel 



522 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Gonzales, a missionary of Oposura, he started for the con- 
fluence of the Colorado and Gila rivers. They visited the 
tribes of Quilhuimas and preached to them the holy truth of 
Christianity. The result of this expedition was that the two 
principal tribes of Arizona, the Quilhuimas and the Yumas, 
sent messages to Father Antonio Leal, superior of the mis- 
sions in Northern Mexico, requesting him to send them 
resident missionaries, tn 1706, Father Kino, with Father 
Manuel de Ojeda, a Franciscan, visited once more the mis- 
sions of Arizona (then in New Mexico). The Franciscan had 
an opportunity of admiring the zeal of Father Kino and of 
observing the remarkable fruits of his labors. He saw by 
himself that Father Kino, alone and without any aid, and 
abandoned, so to say. to his own resources, did more in a few 
years than did the missionaries that came subsequently in 
fifty or more years. He baptized with his own hand more 
than 50,000 savages of different tribes in Arizona. He died 
at the beginning of 1711. His companion, Father Campo, 
having finished a chapel in the village of Santa Maria Magda- 
lena, in honor of St. Francis Xavier, invited his superior to 
the dedication of it. Father Kino went, and while he was 
singing mass, was attacked by pains and died. 

The successors of Father Kino came again into New Mex- 
ico in the year 1867, that being the first year that they gave 
missions in New Mexico under the ecclesiastical administra- 
tion of Archbishop J. B. Lamy, who was at that time in 
Baltimore in attendance to the second plenary council. At 
the close of the sessions of said council. Archbishop Lamy 
departed for Rome with the object of bringing Jesuit mis- 
sionaries to New Mexico. At Rome, after daily endeavors, he 
succeeded at last in obtaining from the Rev. Beckx, prefect 
general of the Society of Jesus, three missionary priests, who 
were the never forgotten Fathers, Livio Vigilante, Rafael 
Bianchi and Donato M. Gasparri, with two lay brothers of 
the same order called Frisco Caso and Rafael Vezza. Said 
fathers, after their arrival at New Mexico gave several very 
fruitful missions and established themselves permanently at 
Las Vegas, where they founded a college (concerning which 
we shall speak in another part of this work) and La Revista 
Cat61ica, a weekly religious review, the number of mission- 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 523 

aries afterwards increasing and settling in Colorado, and 
other places, where they were entrusted with the spiritual 
administration of important curates. 

The Jesuits — Mission of New Mexico."^ 

The mission of New Mexico was founded in the year 1867, 
and at present it numbers fifty-nine fathers, nine scholastic 
and twenty-six lay brothers. 

Its origin is due to Most Reverend Archbishop Lamy, who 
on a visit to Rome, personally requested Very Rev. Father 
Beckx, general of the society, to establish a mission in his 
archdiocese. The request was granted without delay, and 
Neopolitan Province was ordered to send the first founders. 
Those selected were Father Livio Vigilante, Father Donato 
M. Gasparri, Father Raphael Bianchi, Bro. Frisco Caso and 
Bro. Raphael Vezza. They all joined His Grace on his return 
home and arrived with him in Santa Fe, August 15, 1867. 
Thence they proceeded to Bernalillo, where they adminis- 
tered the parish, till they were transferred to Old Albuquer- 
que on the 21st of April, 1868. Thus Old Albuquerque 
became the first and later the Mother House of the whole 
mission. 

The present tield of labor assigned to the Fathers extends 
to the whole ecclesiastical Province of Santa Fe, which 
includes the suffragan dioceses of Denver and Tucson. The 
thriving City of Juarez, Mexico, being a recent addition. 

The Catholic population of the Province of Santa Fe, with 
the present parish of El Paso, is estimated to be about 263, 985 
souls, whilst the area is not less than 340,011 square miles. 

The Mission has been governed by five Superiors, depend- 
ant on the Provincial of Naples, Father Livio Vigilante, 
(August 15, 1867, to September 2, 1869), Father Donato M. 
Gasparri, (September 2, 1869, to June 23, 1876), Father 
Raphael Baldassarre, (June 23, 1876, to September 12, 1880), 

* Note. — This historical narration of the Jesuits' missionary 
labors in New Mexico, under the American g-overnment, is based upon 
the olficial documents of their Society, access to which was had through 
the kindness and with the assistance of Fathers A. M. Mandalari, S. 
J., T. Tommasini and other fathers of the Society; to all of whom I 
am gratefully indebted for this valuaV)le information. — The Author. 



524 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Father Aloysius M. Gentile, (September 12, 1880, to January 
1, 1887), Father Joseph M. Marra, (January 1, 1887, to October 
24, 1898), Father Charles M. Pinto, (October 24, 1898) and 
Rev. F. Joseph Marra, (February 20, 1909). 

Father Vigilante's term of office lasted but a short time. 
He soon returned to the then Maryland Province, from which 
he had come to the mission. He died at Frederick, Md., 
July 8, 1895. 

He was succeeded by Father Donato M. Gasparri, who was 
destined by Divine Providence to give the new-born mission 
stability, influence and development. His extraordinary 
abilities fully equipped him for his arduous task. When 
still a young Jesuit in the City of Naples, he gave a public 
specimen on the lives. Pontificates and principal events of all 
the Popes, from Saint Peter to Pious IX, with a brilliant 
success. 

The following incident will certainly prove his strong per- 
sonality. While he was giving a mission in the city of Santa 
F6 in the year 1881, the Vicar General was informed by the 
sudden arrival of a letter from a distant country, that a 
divorced man had so far deceived him and a young woman as 
to marry her with all the rites of the church. The wedding 
had taken place in the afternoon. Immediately after the 
ceremony the Vicar General and the sheriff were at a loss as 
to the best way of preventing a young woman's ruin, when it 
occurred to them that the whole matter might be referred 
to Father Gasparri. He took it in hand asking only for full 
power to act as effectively and quickly as he could. He 
accordingly, with a deputy's star on his breast, and followed 
by two policemen, went to the bride's house, when the 
wedding festi-vities were highest and loudest. The bride- 
groom was called to one side and ordered by the Father to 
choose at once between the penitentiary, which he deserved 
as a mean bigamist and a sudden flight from the city that 
very moment. Needless to add that the Father's order was 
obeyed. Father Gasparri died at Albuquerque, New Mex- 
ico, December 18, 1882. 

Father R. Baldassarre was the third superior. His infirm 
constitution compelled him to return to Naples, at the expi- 
ration of his term of office. He died there March 9, 1886. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OP NEW MEXICO. 525 

Father A. M. Gentile was appointed fourth superior. As 
he had made almost all his studies in Spain, he had the best 
opportunities for learning the Spanish language, so necessary 
in New Mexico. Hence he spoke it as a Spaniard and 
mastered it as a scholar. He was a religious in the strictest 
sense of the word, untiring in procuring the greater glory 
of God and the salvation of souls. The discomforts of a 
missionary life were never known to interfere with his pious 
practices and spiritual exercises. He held the most respon- 
sible positions the mission could offer. He was missionary, 
master of novices, editor, and local superior different times. 
He died at Las Vegas, New Mexico, September 29, 1907, 
from nervous prostration contracted while giving missions 
in the malaria valleys in Sinaloa, Mexico. 

Father J. M. Marra succeeded Father Gentile. Father 
Marra is a scholar of exquisite taste, a thoughtful and for- 
ceful writer and a through theologian. Much could be said 
about him and his successor Father C. M. Pinto, who at 
present is superior of El Paso, Texas, where he has accom- 
plished a great deal for the glory of God, creating there 
five churches, and four parochial schools. But we must 
respect their modesty. When Father Marra's second term 
of office expired, the General of the Society raised him to the 
government of the Neopolitan Province. Father Marra was 
for years the editor-in-chief of the Revista Cat61ica, prefect 
of studies of the Las Vegas College, and president of the 
Sacred Heart College, Denver, Colo. He is now again superior 
of all Jesuit Fathers in New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, and 
missions, with his headquarters at Las Vegas, N. M. 

From their tirst arrival in New Mexico, the Fathers felt 
that Almighty God brought them here for a great purpose. 
They were to help the clergy firstly in defending and main- 
taining the Catholic faith of the Mexican people and secondly 
in opposing Protestant fanaticism and bigotry, which, aboard 
a railroad sytem already in construction was fast coming to 
this land of primitive religious simplicity. They accordingly 
adopted a mihtary like plan, defensive and offensive, decided 
to start a weekly newspaper, to refute errors and calumnies;. 
a college to educate the rising generation, and a series of 
missions to instruct and warn the mass of the people. 



526 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

The most consoling results crowned the Fathers toils, 
proving at the same time that neither their forebodings were 
unfounded, nor the efficacy of their measures overrated. 
This plan of campaign in behalf of home and church, small 
though it may seem in Territory and population, absorbed 
the hearts of the first Fathers, and forms now the greatest 
glory of the mission and in the course of time will not be 
deemed unworthy of a place in the pages of history. 

The Revista Gatolica. 

The Revista Catolica is a Spanish weekly, religious news- 
paper. It was first issued by Father Gasparri in Old Albu- 
querque in 1875. It is now published in Las Vegas. Till 
the time of its first appearance New Mexico was Cathohc in 
its entirety. But just then the A. T, & S. F. system was first 
building its railroad toward New Mexico to bring civilization 
and communication with the East. Unfortunately these 
advantages were to be accompanied by Protestant bigotry as 
the recent events which occurred in the Philippine Islands 
fully demonstrate. It was not difficult to foresee that the 
boon of civilization, if desirable in many respects, w^ould cause 
a religious strife in New Mexico. 

The Revista Catolica enters the arena in defense of Old 
Mother Church. It fought rigorously unmasking all errors 
and solving all difficulties against religion. If the people 
have not been robbed of their faith it is chiefly the influence 
of this weekly. Its reputation as an ably edited newspaper, 
is to be largely attributed to the skill and untiring efforts of 
Father J. M. Marra and Father A. M. Rossi. It has now 
4550 subscribers. After thirty-four years of struggle with 
Protestant ministers, it is now as strenuous in the defense of 
the church as it was in the very beginning of its life. 

The College. 

The opening of a Catholic college for the education of youth 
was, in the opinion of the Fathers, the second means to be 
adopted for the preservation of the Catholic faith in New 
Mexico. 

In the year 1877, the Las Vegas college was formally 
opened. A larger number of students than expected came 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 527 

from all parts of the Territory to avail themselves of the 
opportunity offered them of receiving a thorough Catholic 
training. Young men belonging to most the prominent fam- 
ilies w^ere formed in that college during that ten years of its 
existence to that Catholic spirit which they now manifest in 
public life. Yet in the year 1888, the Las Vegas college was 
removed to Denver, assuming a new name and enlarging the 
field of its usef uliness. Denver was destined then to become 
the Queen City of the Rocky Mountain region, and the metrop- 
olis of Colorado. Several reasons prompted the Fathers to 
make this step, the most cogent to them, perhaps was their 
earnest desire to introduce a higher course of studies 
according to the ratio studiorum of the Society, for which a 
larger city and a more popular State were undoubtedly 
better fitted. 

Father Salvador Persone was the first president of both 
colleges. A more desirable site for the present College of the 
Sacred Heart could hardly have been chosen. The college is 
empowered to grant University and Collegiate degrees. It 
is intended for boarders, half-boarders and day-boarders. It 
has an attendance of 226 pupils and it has given 135 graduates 
to society and religion. 

The Missions. 

As soon as the diocesan clergy became acquainted with 
the Jesuit Fathers, or heard how much good their preaching 
was doing at Albuquerque, their first parish, did not fail to 
see that they were the God sent and long needed mission- 
aries of the diocese. The Territory was to enter upon a 
period of transmission. Two religions, Catholicism and 
modern religious indifference would soon meet on common 
ground to struggle for the mastery of the Mexican popula- 
tion. The old and new would engage soon in the blood of 
battle. The native people were in danger of losing their 
faith, unless vigorous measures would be taken to instruct 
them and warn them against religious innovations. The Fath- 
ers were the soldiers sent by Almighty God to wage this 
holy war, and the missionary work among the people, the 
weapon to be brandished by them. Hence from their first 
arrival in New Mexico they were called upon a long series 



528 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

of missions which enlarged a hundred-fold the scope of their 
work, popularized the name of the society, and, helped in 
preserving the Catholic faith. Every parish, every mission, 
every station of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe became grad- 
ually the scene of religious fervor. Later on the Fathers 
visited almost every Mexican parish in New Mexico, Colo- 
rado, Texas and Arizona. Finally they visited all California 
and the states of the Mexican frontier. In these latter 
states they had to teach the rudiments of religion to a large 
number of people who never before had the opportunity of 
making their first holy communion. They gave in all not 
less than 635 missions to Mexicans. Those who worked 
longest and hardest in this truly apostolic task were Father 
P. Tommasini, * Father A. M. Gentile, Father J. M. Monte- 
narelli, and Father J. D. Aponte. Father Edward Barry, 
pastor of the Sacred Heart church, Denver, Colorado, is con- 
tinuing now the same good work among the English speak- 
ing population of Colorado. He has so far given 39 missions. 

The Parishes. 

The mission is in charge ^of twenty parochial or quasi 
parochial churches in New Mexico, Colorado, and Texas- 
They are: 1st, church of St. Philip Neri, Old Albuquerque^ 
New Mexico, Rev. P. Tommasini, pastor; 2nd, Holy Trinity 
church, Trinidad, Colorado, Rev. A, S. Person^, pastor; 
3rd, St. Patrick's church, Pueblo, Colorado, Rev. J. B. 
Schimpf, pastor; 4th, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Pueblo, 
Colorado, Rev, L. M. Giglio, pastor; 5th, St. Francis Xavier's 
church, Pueblo, Colorado, Rev. F. X. Kowald, pastor; 6th, 
Sacred Heart church, Denver, Colorado, Rev. E. Barry pastor; 
7th, Holy Family church, Denver, Colorado, Rev. L. Fede, 
pastor; 8th, Holy Name of Mary church, Del Norte, Colorado, 
Rev. J. N. MontenareUi, pastor; 9th, Our Lady of Guadalupe 
church, Conejos, Colorado, Rev. G. Massa, pastor; 10th, 
Sacred Heart church, El Paso, Texas, Rev. M. I. Zaguirre, 
pastor; 11th, Immaculate Conception church. El Paso, Texas,. 

Rev. A. Roy, pastor; 12th, St. Ignatius church, ElPaso, Texas 

_^ — > 

* Father P. Tommasini is now 76 years old, his first missionary 
work was performed in California where he preached 44 missions in 
1877. In New Mexico he has preached 20 missions.— The Author. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 529 

Rev. G. Bertolero, pastor; 13th, Guardian Angel church, El 
Paso, Texas, Rev. A. Gilbert, pastor; 14th, St. Rosaliachurch, El 
Paso, Texas, Rev. J. Lafon, pastor; 15th, Our Lady of Guada- 
lupe church, St. EHzario, Texas, Rev. F. X. Tommasini, 
pastor; 16th, Our Lady of Mount Carmel church, Isleta, 
Texas, Rev. J. Cordova, pastor; 17th, Our Lady of Guadalupe, 
church, Juarez, Mexico, Rev. C. M. Pinto, pastor; 18th, 
Immaculate Conception church, Albuquerque, New^ Mexico, 
Rev. A. M. Mandalari, pastor; 19th, Sacred Heart church, 
Albuquerque, New Mexico, Rev. P. Tommasini, pastor; 20th, 
Alamosa, Colorado, Rev. F. Bueno, pastor. 

The churches of Old Albuquerque, Juarez and Isleta are 
very old and deserve special mention. ^ 

The church of St. Philip Neri of Old Albuquerque was 
erected before the year 1706, the baptismal register in pos- 
session of the Fathers dating from that year. When the 
Jesuit Fathers were placed in charge of this church. Old 
Albuquerque was one of the most important towns of New 
Mexico. It has since lost all its historical antiquity. Albu- 
querque, a new American city sprang up at one mile distance 
usurping its name, inhabitant^ and importance. Old Albu- 
querque is now but a country village, and a "magni nominis 
umbra." 

Nor is its history all glorious. The town had been for 
years the unhappy receptacle of a United States garrison, 
which, although charged with the defense of the home and 
church from the sudden and brutal inroads of the Indians, 
put instead to flight that patriarchal simplicity of manners 
and strictness of morals so charmingly beautiful in the Mexi- 
can people. The Fathers had to till a field of briars. But God, 
who had given zeal to their hearts, crowned their labors with 
success. The parish of St Philip Neri is one of the glories of 
the mission. 

In the year 1872, the first parochial school in the diocese 
was formally opened under the direction of Father Vito 
Tromby, S. J. 

The Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Juarez, Mexico, is 
the oldest of the missions. The settlement of El Paso del 
Norte, now Juarez, was established by the first conquerors 
of New Mexico. The present church was erected in 1645. 



530 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

The Franciscan Fathers were in charge of the parish from 
the year 1662 till the close of the eighteenth century, when it 
passed into the hands of the diocesan clergy. The Jesuit 
Fathers were placed in charge of it in 1885. Very Rev. 
Father Pinto is pastor. He has beautitied the old church, 
improved the rectory and revived the piety of the faithful to 
such a degree that it would be difficult to see traces of the 
abandoned church, ruinous rectory and lax congregation of 
two decades ago. 

The church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Isleta, Texas, 
is also very old and historical. It was built in 1692, the 
parochial records dating from the 19th of May of that year. 
It was successfully in charge first of the Franciscan Fath- 
ers, and then of the diocesan clergy. The Jesuit Fathers 
came to administer to this parish in 1880. 

We close this short sketch of the missions of New Mexico 
and Colorado by giving a summary of the Fathers' work as it 
appeared in last year's report. 

The Fathers had built and conduct one college; attendance 
266, graduates 135. 

They are in charge of nineteen parochial or quasi-parochial 
churches and attend 121 missions or stations with 78,420 
total Catholic population. They erected 14 parochial and 50 
mission churches. In all these parochial and mission 
churches, 65 missions have so far been given in English and 
Spanish, about 165,213 communions every year are distrib- 
uted to the faithful. Fifty-five sodalities are in a flourishing 
condition, and the Apostleship of Prayer is established and 
promoted with about 11,082 members. 

The Fathers have also erected and conduct ten parochial 
schools which are taught by sisters. Attendance, 2,954; gra- 
duates, 143. 

They give every year about forty retreats or tridums. 

As regards for these works undertaken for the glory of 
God and the salvation of souls, and endured with apostolic 
spirit, all the Fathers desire is that they may find comfort in 
this life in the words of the apostle "gratia Dei in me vacua 
non fuit." And in the life to come rest, "laboribus suis," 
in the vision of God. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 531 

The Franciscans In Our Times. 

The Franciscan Fathers of the Third Order are also found 
at present in New Mexico, having under their charge the 
curates of Pena Blanca, Jemes and Roswell, and occasionally 
giving missions in the parishes entrusted to other priests. 

Sisters of Charity Orphan Asylums — Protestant Asylums. 

New Mexico possesses several orphan asylums under the 
care of the sisters of the Catholic Church, as well as under 
the charge of ladies of the Protestant faith. The first sisters 
who opened orphan asylums in New Mexico were the Sisters 
of Charity. In the year 1865, the Most Illustrious Bishop 
Lamy succeeded in obtaining from the Mother-house of the 
Sisters of Charity, of Cedar Grove, four sisters whose names 
were: Sister Vicenta, Sister Teodosia, Sister Paulina and 
Sister Catalina. These sisters arrived in Santa F6 in Sep- 
tember, 1865, and opened the first orphan asylum and hospital 
with Sister Teodosia as superioress. From that year down 
to the present time the sisters have increased in number and 
have established institutes for orphans with schools in sev- 
eral parts of the state, having built very costly asylums and 
sanatoriums, one in Santa Fe, and one in Albuquerque, the 
last mentioned being founded in 1870, due to the efforts of 
Father Manecani, S. J. 

Orphan Asylum at Santa Fe. 

The Sisters of Charity have charge at Santa Fe of a hos- 
pital and orphan asylum. In the hospital proper, poor and 
helpless patients are attended, their number reaching some- 
times to more than a hundred a year. At the orphan asylum, 
orphan children are received, and are given food, raiment 
and instruction, their number varying from 46 to 80 a year. 

Hospitals at Albuquerque, Silver City, Callup, Las Vegas and Deming. 

At Albuquerque the hospital is in charge of the Sisters of 
Charity. At Silver City the hospital is in care of the Sisters 
of Mercy. In the same city there is another hospital under 
the care of two ladies in which treatment is given to poor 



532 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

sick persons. At Deming, Gallup and Las Vegas there are 
also hospitals under the care of private persons. All the 
establishments above noted receive funds for the maintenance 
of the poor and helpless from the public treasury. These 
remarks close this chapter, and we shall treat in the next of 
education, penal institutions, population and other matters. 



CHAPTER X. 



Primitive Teaching — Private School and First Public School Laws — 
Private Colleges — Barreiro's Report — Message of Governor Vigil 
— First School for Teaching English — Bishop Lamy — Second School 
for Teaching English — School for Girls — Sisters of Loretto — Incor- 
poration of the Sisters of Loretto — Property and Improvements of 
the Sisters of Loretto and Their Value — Christian Brothers — The 
Brothers Start for New Mexico — Opening of the College — New 
Director — Brothers Geramius and Domiciano — New Director and 
New Era — The Good Done by the College — Silver Jubilee — Golden 
Jubilee — Sisters of Charity — Las Vegas College — (Golegio de Las 
Vegas) — Parochial School at Santa Fe —Public Schools — Superin- 
tendent of Public Instruction — County School Superintendent — 
School and Municipal Districts — The Counties of the Territory — 
Number of Students — Funds — Private Sectarian Schools — Peda- 
gogical Institutions of the State of New Mexico — Additional Funds 
— Indian'Schools — Summary — Penal and Other Institutions — Popu- 
lation of New Mexico at Different Epochs. 



In this chapter the reader shall be presented in the first 
place with the history of education from the establishment 
of the first school in 1599 by the Franciscans who came along 
with Onate.* The reader wnll remember to have read in 
former chapters extracts from the memorandum or account 
made by Father Fr. Benavides in the 3^ear 1630, to the King 
of Spain, in Madrid, in which said Father gave a narrative in 
detEiil of the industrial schools and shops which up to that 
date, the Franciscans had established in New Mexico, as well 
as of the minerals which had been discovered, and, finally, 
of the precise condition in which New Mexico was found at 
that epoch. In that report \ Fr. Benavides tells us how many 
schools and work shops the Franciscans had in each pueblo. 

* Although the Indians of New Mexico began to receive instruction 
in reading etc., as early as 1581, by Fr. Agustin Rodriguez and his 
companions as has already been stated (ante). — Thf, Author. 

t That report is given as first appendix of tliis work. — The 
Ax:fTHOR. 



534 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

But as the Spaniards were expelled in the year 1680, it must 
be understood that the first fruits of education implanted in 
ISIew Mexico by the Franciscan Fathers ended with the 
expulsion of Otermin in the said year, 1680, without there 
remaining any possibility for the schools to continue until 
after the reconquest by De Vargas in 1692-1693, when the 
Franciscan Fathers again came to continue the education 
of the Indians and Spanish children. 

We have already seen in the first chapter of the fourth 
book, of this work how, in the year 1721, ppblic schools were 
established in New Mexico by decree of the King, directed 
by Franciscan Fathers, in all the pueblos, and Spanish settle- 
ments, thus widening the educational sphere which said 
Fathers re-established in New Mexico in 1693-4, the year of 
the reconquest by De Vargas; so that education in New 
Mexico was implanted in its soil by the Catholic Church 
prior to the year 1598-9. There being no other statistics 
(except those furnished by the Franciscan Fathers already 
quoted) which stretch further back than the year 1800, we 
have to take, as our starting point, from that date what we 
find in Barriero, Pino and Escudero, who wrote their work& 
in the years 1812, 1832, and 1843, respectively. 

In Pino * we read that by virtue of a royal decree of June 
30th, 1777, and a brief of His Holiness, the Pope, of November 
17, 1777, a buildipg was erected for a college, or seminary 
for the education of religious persons, which is supposed ta 
have been constructed in Santa Fe, as Pino says nothing 
about that, but does say that with the conclusion of the 
edifice everything came to an end, as not a school was ever 
opened in the seminary for lack of resources. 

Private School in Santa Fe. 

Attorney Barriero in his "Adici6n'' to Pino's work on page 
62, tells us that in the earlier part of the nineteenth century ,^ 
there was a private school in Santa Fe, which he describes in 
this way: 

"At the home of Vicar General Don Juan Rafael 
Rascon, the young man Guadalupe Miranda (who subse- 

* Pino "Not. Hist.,"" p. 31. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 535 

quently became Secretary of State. — The Author) renders 
this Territory a very important service in teaching to 
several young men the elements of Spanish grammar, 
Latin, and the rudiments of philosophy; the constancy of 
citizen Miranda deserves just eulogy, and it is deserved, 
no less, by the youths who avail themselves of this 
opportunity, for they struggle against great inconve- 
niences, such as the lack of books, etc. May heaven grant 
New Mexico a scientific establishment in which her sons 
may be instructed according to the enlightenment of our 
. century." 

Barriero continues speaking of the criminal neglect in 
which thre government had kept the youth of New Mexico, 
and referring to the subject of public schools, says: 

"Comparatively spea.king, nothing could be better 
endowed in the Territory than the establishment of 
schools; yet nothing is found in a more pitiable condition 
than the schools; no results from the primary teaching 
are evident: this misfortune being due, in part, to the 
neglect, jealousy, and ignorance of some of the teachers, 
as well as to the little zeal shown by the authorities.'" 

Public Schools. 

Speaking on the same subject Barriero makes an exposition 
showing the towns in the Territory which had public primary 
schools, and the salaries paid to teachers; from which we 
see that Santa F6, San Miguel del Vado, Santa Cruz de La 
Canada, Taos, Albuquerque, and Belen, were the only places 
in which public schools were kept, and that the pay to 
teachers was: In Santa Pe, $500 a year; in San Miguel del 
Vado, Taos, and Belen, $250 in each^place; and in Santa Cruz 
and Albuqueque, $300 in each place. 

From the above statement two conclusions may be drawn, 
viz: That the people of New Mexico, notwithstanding their 
injustifiable neglect by the government, and the continual 
peril to which the country was exposed on account of the 
incursions of the Indians, heartily desired to give its youth 
the best education possible, under the strained circumstances 
surrounding them and, secondly, that despite its lack of in- 



536 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

dustries such as manufactures, and others expedients, they 
made great sacrifices for gathering the means of paying their 
teachers. 

Private Schools — First Public School Law Approved April 27, 1822. 

There were in New Mexico, besides the schools mentioned 
by Barreiro, other private schools whose preceptors were 
brought from Mexico and Spain, at private expense; among 
them was the school established by Don Geronimo Becerra, 
at Abiquiu, towards the close of the eighteenth, or the 
beginning of the nineteenth century. In that school many 
of the foremost men in New Mexico, of that epoch, were 
educated, among them Rev. Father Antonio Jose Martinez 
stands the most conspicuous — a man who subsequently cut 
such a prominent figure under the governments of Spain, 
Mexico and the United States; but it was not until April 27, 
1822, that the first step was taken to again establish, by law, 
public schools in New Mexico. At its session of that date 
the "Diputaci6n Provincial" approved such a law — which 
failed of producing any results through the lack of public 
funds. Some good however, was accomplished by it, because 
private wealthy citizens contributed liberally to keep it up 
for several years. Again in 1823, the "Diputaci6n Provin- 
cial'" passed a second school law for the establishment of a 
High School at El Paso (now Juarez). In that school Latin 
and Spanish grammars had to be taught. These laws we 
will now consider: 

First School Law— April 27, 1822. 

The law referred to was not a law as we now understand 
that term, no, it was a resolution of the assembly, in other 
words, a motion of one of its members as follows: "Mr. 
Vigil made the following proposition. I move that H. E. 
(His Excellency) take the necessary steps for the education 
of the youth in accordance with the authority with which he 
is invested, promoting the activities and performance of 
such an important matter by the Ayuntamientos (municipal- 
ities). The motion, after full discussion, was approved by 
directing the said Ayuntamientos to proceed without delay 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 537 

to the formation of public schools, of primary grades, in 
accordance with the means of each community"' (Pueblo.) * 

Second Law on Education — March 17, 1823. 

March 17, 1823, the asamblea, on motion, adopted a propo- 
sition submitted by the Ayuntamientos of El Paso (now City 
of Juarez), which settlement was then under the jurisdiction 
of New Mexico, for the establishment at that place of a high 
school for teaching grammar in both the Spanish and Latin 
languages. Don Luis Diaz de Lujan — who presented the 
proposition — agreeing to defray the expenses of the school 
and to teach the children of all those who would contribute to 
its support. The Ayuntamiento of El Paso was charged 
with the care, responsibility and compliance of this law. f 

Private Colleges. 

Two Catholic priests in the year 1826, established at their 
own expense, two colleges from which much good resulted 
for New Mexico, these priests being the Vicar, Agustin 
Fernandez, at Santa Pe, and Padre Martinez, at Taos. Prom 
those colleges came many of the men who subsequently made 
laws for the country. In 1827, there were in New Mexico, in 
addition to the colleges above mentioned, seventeen schools 

Note—* "El Sr. Vig-il hizo la proposicion sig-uiente: Pido que se 
seiva S. E: promober la Educacion de la jubentud como una de las 
atribuciones que le corresponden, probocando la actividad y desem- 
peflo de los Ayuntamientos en esta importantisima materia. 
Admitida a discusion se resolvio que se oficie a los expresados Ayun- 
tamientos que evacuen cuanto antes la formacion de las Escuelas pub- 
licas, de primeras letras, segun las circumstancias de cada Pueblo — 
Session of April 27, 1822— Journal No. 11, page 8. Surveyor General's 
Office, Santa Fe, N. M.— The Author. 

t Sesion del dia 17 de Marzo de 1823. "Se procedio a la lecura de 
una proposicion que a acordado el Ayuntamiento del Pueblo del Paso 
sobrela creacion de un establecimiento para ensenar la g-ramatica en 
las leng-uas Castellana y Latina, segun el plan que a dicho Ayunta- 
miento a propuesto Don Luis Diaz de Lujan que se a ofrecido a dar 
la enseuanza a los niSos sufragando los gastos de dicho estableci- 
miento los mismos interesados, se resolvio se aprobara dicho plan y 
que se encargue dho Ayuntamiento de vigilar el cumplimiento del 
director y asistentes de los ninos." Journal No. 40 page 40. Arch, 
in Surveyor General's office, Santa Pe, N. M. — The Author. 



538 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

with an equal number of teachers, and in 1844, schools had 
been established in all points of importance. Governor Don 
Mariano Martinez having, on that year, thrown the weight of 
his prestige, helping with his own money, in the establish- 
ment of public schools in Santa Fe, in which literary and 
military instruction was given, the governor, also, having 
brought two professors from Europe, whose names were 
Francisco Gonzales and Eduardo Taty. 

Contributions and Appropriations to Pay Teachers — 1824. 

On December 17, 1824, the "asambleadepartamentar'appro- 

priated the sum of $2,000.00 for the payment of salaries due 

school teachers. There were no funds available to pay them 

and the said amount of $2,000.00 was taken from the funds 

set apart for the support of the company of soldiers stationed 

in Santa Fe. 

Public Schools Again Established. 

At its session of September 10, 1825, the assembly decreed 
again the establishment of public schools in the Territory, 
but, for lack of funds, they were to depend on voluntary con- 
tributions. Fathers Antonio Jos4 Martinez and Juan Felipe 
Ortiz, both members of the assembly, were charged with the 
duty of organizing the schools and they were instructed to 
have them opened the following month. 

Salary of Father Alvares. 

On November 7, 1825, the asamblea agreed, by unanimous 
vote, to pay Rev. Sebastian Alvares the salary of $1,000.00 
annually, for his services' as director (principal) of the city 
public schools. Don Francisco Ortiz made the offer of a school 
house for ten yeai's, free of rent, which offer was accepted. 

Governor Francisco Xavier Donates $1,000.00. 

At the session of April 13, 1826, there were no funds to pay 
the teachers, a contribution was taken up. Governor Xavier 
(Javier) contributing with the sum of $1,000.00. 

Vicar Fernandez Assumes Charge of the College. 

The report of Vicar x\gustin Fernandez was considered by 
the asamblea on May 19, 1826. Father Fernandez's report 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 539 

showed that the rules of disciphne for the pubhc college in 
the Capital, Santa F6, had been prepared, approved and 
were being enforced. 

In the year 1827, there was besides the college one more 
public school in Santa Fe under the charge of Professor 
Teodocio Quintana. Professor Quintana, at the session of 
the assemblea of August of that year, reported that his 
predecessor had only reported to him an enrollment of 29 
pupils. The alcaldes were directed to take the necessary 
steps to increase the enrollment and attendance of pupils. 
The foregoing review of educational conditions in New 
Mexico prior to 1846 is a true representation of the struggles 
and laudable efforts made by the people of the Territory 
during the darkest period of their history, when they had to 
face not only the savages who harassed them day and night,^ 
but poverty itself. Their constancy was truly marvelous. 

It is, them, seen that, at the time of the annexation of New 
Mexico to the United States, the mental condition of New Mex- 
ico, from an educational viewpoint, was lamentable, and that 
for the purpose of remedying somewhat the sad situation, 
Don Donaciano Vigil, who was acting as governor after the 
murder of Governor Bent, recommended to the legislature, 
which met that year in Santa Pe, under the military govern- 
ment, that an appropriation should be made in order to 
foment the education of the youth of New Mexico. Gov- 
ernor Vigil uses the following words: 

Message of Governor VigiL 

"Actually there is but one public school in the Territory, 
situated in the City of Santa Pe, and supported by the county 
funds. To this school all children may attend, but the funds 
of the county are insufficient to employ more than one 
teacher " 

"It stands to reason that when there are no private schools 
or academies, the means for obtaining an education are very 
limited; for this reason the means to give all an equal chance 
of being educated should be increased, that is, an even chance 
to the poor as well as to the rich; and, if it were possible, to 
establish a school, in each point, city and village in the 
Territory. If our government is to be republican, if it is 



540 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

to be based upon democratic principles, and if the will of the 
majority is to be one day the law and government of the 
people, it is of the highest importance that that will be properly 

observed. The people must be enlightened so that 

every man may be able to read and inform himself of the 
events of the day and of the important subjects which relate 
to his government and country The world is progress- 
ing, and how shall we be able to draw the benetits of that 
advancement if we do not educate our people? True it is 
that the expedients which we can dispose of today are few, 
nevertheless, in order to promote so laudable an object, they 
can be increased and economized. All that the legislature 
may be able to do in favor of education, I most earnestly 
request them to do, assuring them that for that purpose I 
shall cooperate with my whole heart." * 

First School for Teaching English — Bishop Lamy — Establishment of 
Public Schools- 

Just as education was due to the Catholic church from the 
time of the first colonization of New Mexico to the date when 
the change of governments was effected (for neither the 
Spanish nor the Mexican governments did much for the pro- 
motion of education, but rather neglected it entirely, leaving 
it all to the church) so also, immediately after the change of 
flags, it was the Catholic church that took the first step for 
the establishment of schools in New Mexico. The treatment 
which New Mexico received at the hands of the American 
government from 1846 down to our own days, regarding 
education, despoils us of the right to censure the govern- 
ments of Spain and Mexico for having neglected the educa- 
tion of New Mexico's children, for our government has done 
nothing except having, but very recently, aided us with a few 
thousands of dollars, annually, for the payment of our public 
schools; but those few thousand dollars have not come out of 
the national treasury, but from the sales and leases made by 
the government of our own public lands; so that all the edu- 
cation given in New Mexico, from the change of flags to the 
present time, is due primarily to the most illustrious Arch- 

* Ritch. "NewMex." 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 541 

bishop Lamy, of grateful memory; to the churches of other 
denominations, and to the sons of New Mexico themselves, 
who have, since 1863, organized a system of public schools 
throughout the Territory, our treasury furnishing the funds 
for the support of the same. 

First Public School Law — 1863. 

In that year (1863) the first law was passed whereby the 
management of the schools was placed in the hands of the 
Governor, the Secretary of the Territory and Bishop Lamy, 
and from that year to this date, all the legislatures have 
been passing new laws for the broadening of education, so 
that today New Mexico is not behind any of the States of 
the Union in the intellectual advancement of its youth. In 
another part of this chapter we shall treat of the share the 
public schools have had in the intellectual development in 
New Mexico, as we must now turn back to our starting 
point, namely, the first English school established in New 
Mexico under the American flag. 



"o* 



First English School. 

In the year 1851, when his Lordship, Bishop Lamy, had 
done away with the difficulties he met on his arrival, he took 
the first step to establish in New Mexico a school with the 
object of teaching English. He brought an English professor 
whose name was E. Noel, who opened a school at the Capital, 
and kept it in operation for several years. Several of the men 
who were educated in that school figured afterwards in pub- 
lic life, among them, Don Demetrio Perez, a respectable old 
gentleman who still lives at Las Vegas, New Mexico, he being 
the person who gave the author the information regarding 
the establishment of said school (which fact has been ignored 
by other historians of New Mexico through lack, perhaps, of 
any knowledge of it). Don Demetrio Perez has figured in 
public life in high positions. 

Second English SchooL 

In 1852, the second private school for teaching English was 
established in Santa F6, its teacher being a lady named Howe, 



542 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

but there was at the same time the public school already re- 
ferred to, supra, and a private school conducted by a teacher 
named Pacheco. Things remained thus in the matter of 
schools until the year 1863, when the first school law already 
mentioned was passed. For female children the school of the 
Sisters of Loretto was next founded; to this school we shall 
now refer. 

School for Girls — Sisters of Loretto. 

His Lordship, Bishop Lamy, recognizing the urgent need 
that existed for the establishment of a school for girls, 
started for the east in the year 1852, for the purpose ot attend- 
ing the plenary council of Baltimore, and, also, with the object 
of bringmg sisters for the purpose of establishing a convent 
at Santa Pe. Success crowned his wishes. He returned the 
same year bringing with him the first sisters who founded 
the school, or academy of Loretto in the Capital, and from 
which we have today ramifications in the principal parts of 
the State. * 

First Sisters. 

On June 27, 1852, six sisters accompanied by Bishop Lamy, 
started for New Mexico from the Mother-house of Loretto, 
in Kentucky. One of them was Sister Matilda, who came as 
superioress, but who died on the trip, between Kansas and 
Independence, a victim of cholera, a disease that attacked 
two other sisters, one of whom was obliged to return to Ken- 
tucky, and the other, Magdalena Hayden, was appointed 
superioress. With her along, the caravan left Independ- 
ence on the first of August of that year, reaching Santa 
Pe on September 26th following, having suffered in the long 
trip across the plains almost unbearable hardships, and 
lost one of their number who died on the road, her remains 
being buried in the desert. On the first of January, 1853, the 
first school of the sisters, under the title of "Our Lady of 
Light,"' opened its doors to the girls of New Mexico in Arch- 
bishop's Lamy 's own house, where the sisters kept the school 
until the year 1857, when they bought a two story house 
which stood in precisely the location where stands today the 

* The information that follows has been obtained by the author 
from the mother superior of the principal convent at Santa F^. 



a: 

r. 



r. 



O 
o 

o 

CD 






c 



oc 



c 




544 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

main structure of the sumptuous and elegant buildings 
which form the Academy and Convent of Loretto, in the 
Capital. The small number of six sisters which originally 
came was gradually increased from year to year with the 
advent of new sisters and the ingress into the order of young 
Spanish-American girls of New Mexico, the sisters being 
thus enabled to establish convents in other parts of the Ter- 
ritory. They established a convent at Taos in 1873, in Mora, 
in 1864, and in the City of Denver, Colorado, in the same year. 
Those convents were followed by the following: One at Las 
Vegas, another at Las Cruces, another at Socorro, and 
another at San Elizario, Texas. 

Deaths of Mothers Magdalena and Francisca Lamy. 

Sister Magdalena passed to a better life on October 27th, 
1894, having suffered from almost complete paralysis from 
the year 1881. 

She was succeeded by Sister Francisca Lamy, a niece to 
Archbishop Lamy, who was afterwards sent to Kentucky as 
assistant to the Mother Superior of the order, and who 
passed to her reward in Kentucky in March, 1912. The other 
mothers who have administered the convent, respectively, 
are Sister Catherine Connor, Sister Lucia Perea, Sister 
Barbara, and Sister Rosina, the actual superioress. 

For the purpose of exercising legal rights and of enjoying 
the protection of the law, the sisters of Loretto incorporated 
their school under tbe laws of New Mexico in 1874, from 
which date they have issued diplomas to their graduates. 

Said sisters have, in the City of Santa Fe, the best school 
buildings this side of St. Louis, Missouri, namely; the beau- 
tiful and very costly chapel constructed in 1878, and about 
which we have already spoken, and the tine academy building 
which they erected in 1881. Both institutions are equipped 
with all modern conveniences and up-to-date furniture; they 
also built a three story brick convent in the year 1892, 
on the precise place where the first edifice or adobe house of 
two stories bought by them in 1857 stood before and which 
at that time was known by the name of ^^Casa Americana'' 
(American house) all of which said property is worth about 
$88,000, without including in this amount the valuable library 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



545 



which has over a thousand volumes of the best known 
authors. The number of young ladies — boarders and day- 
scholars — who attend the school is on an average, from 146 
to 200. The value of the property of the sisters in other 
parts of the state, as given by the Superintendent of Public 
Instruction of New Mexico is as follows: The convent at 




Rev. Petor Eguillon, second Viear of New Mexico under 
Archbishop Lamy. 

Las Cruces, $50,000; the convents at Socorro, Mora, Taos and 
Las Vegas, is not given in the official report of said superin- 
tendent but all of said convents are costly edifices. 

Christian Brothers. 

Before coming into the narrative of the advent of the 
Christian Brothers, it is but just to offer a word of gratitude 
and pleasing remembrance to two of the] apostolic co-labor- 
ers of the Most Illustrious Bishop Lamy, who, during the 



546 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



first years of the territorial government, under the Ameri- 
can government, were real apostles and true missionaries, 
and, therefore, are worthy of a great share of the glory with 
which grateful history decks the brows of the Most Illus- 
trious Bishop Lamy. They are Fathers P. J. Machebeuf, 
first vicar general of New Mexico, and his successor, Father 




Rev. A. M. Mandalari, S. .1. Pastor, Albuciiu'rciuc, N. ISI. 



Peter Eguillon. These two zealous missionaries co-operated 
with Bishop Lamy in a very efficient manner in the organiza- 
tion of the new ecclesiastical government and in the estab- 
lishment of the schools of the Sisters and the Christian Broth- 
ers, the bringing of the Jesuits and other religious persons. 
Now we must state that to the zeal of said Father Mache- 
beuf and his successor Father Eguillon, New Mexico owes as 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 547 

great a debt as the one she owes to Lamy. Machebeuf acted 
in his sacerdotal ministry in several points of New Mexico, 
first as Vicar General, then as cure of Albuquerque, after- 
wards was made bishop of Arizona, and, finally, was given 
the bishopric of Colorado, where he died. In 1858, Father 
Eguillon, at that time Vicar General of New Mexico, was 
sent to Prance by Bishop Lamy with the object of bringing 
Christian Brothers for the establishment of colleges in New 
Mexico. His trip to France gave the results which both he 
and Bishop Lamy longed for, as he obtained from Brother 
Phillip, Superior General of the Christian Brothers in 
France, the following brothers: Hilarion, Gondulph, Gera- 
mius and Galmier. 

The Brothers Start for New Mexico. 

On August 17th, 1859,* said Brothers sailed for America in 
company of Father Eguillon and nine priests (Rev. J. B. Sal- 
pointe, afterwards Archbishop, being one of them) whom 
Father Eguillon was bringing to New Mexico, arriving in 
New York without any difficulty at the end of the month and 
remaining in that place for some days to take a needed 
rest from the toils of their ocean trip, and resuming their 
journey with the addition of one more brother, Optatien, who 
had been added to them at that place by the brother director 
of the Christian Brothers in New York. They traversed the 
plains and deserts, undergoing all sorts of sufferings, besides 
being daily exposed to be murdered by the Indians, and 
arrived in Santa Fe, on October 27th of that year, after two 
months and two days of an annoying journey. His Lordship, 
the bishop, gave them lodging in his own dwelling until the 
next day, when the house in which they were to commence 
their first scholastic tasks, was delivered to them. That 
house was an adobe building situated in the same place 
where stands today the sumptuous structure which forms at 
present the main portion of Saint Michael's College, but as 
the house was not provided with the necessary and proper 
furniture, the brothers had to sleep, for several nights, on 

*The narrative that follows is taken from Salpointe: "Soldiers 
of the Cross, ■■ and from the archives of St. Michael's CoUeg-e. 



548 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

mattresses stretched out on the bare ground, there being no 
lumber floors in the house. Meanwhile the brothers took 
their meals at the bishop's. Two or three days after, the 
brothers commenced to repair the building, furnishing it 
with live chairs, five mattresses, five blankets, and a few 
benches, all of which was donated to them by his Lordship, 
Bishop Lamy, whose poverty was equal to that of the 
brothers. 

Opening of the College — Brother Hilarion First Director. 

The ninth of November, 1859, marks another luminous 
page in the history of New Mexico in its educational annals, 
as luminous as the one marked by the opening of the Con- 
vent of the Sisters of Loretto, on the first of January, 1858. 
On that day, pupils began to be received at St. Michael's 
College, with Brother Hilarion at the head; but as Brother 
Hilarion would not establish a school for boarders, for lack 
of means to keep it up. Archbishop Lamy took upon himself 
the responsibility of paying the Brothers from his own 
purse 1800.00 for the five Brothers, a year, and gave them, 
at the same time, their food, lodging and washing; the food 
was to consist of coffee, bread, meat and vegetables. The 
college thus continued under such conditions for two j^ears. 
On the 22nd of December, 1859, the school was opened to 
boarders giving the college great help, for the brothers 
could then account a number of pupils which varied from 
100 to 250 day scholars and 30 boarders. 

The New Directors. 

On February 7th, 1862, Brother Hilarion had to return to 
France in obedience to the call of his superior, being suc- 
ceeded by Brother Gondulph, who acted as director until 
September 10th, 1862, when he was succeeded by Brother 
Geramius. Brother Hilarion, at the time of his departure 
for France, left the college well furnished, with a valuable 
library, all the buildings in good condition, and without any 
debt. Brother Gondulph succeeded in increasing the pres- 
tige the college already had in the Territory, erected new 
buildings, put on new roofs, and a new wooden floor in the 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 549 

Church of San Miguel, * and improved in other respects the 
condition of the college before leaving it in charge of brother 
Geramius, his successor. 

Brothers Geramius and Domiciano. 

Under the administration of these two Brothers who were 
directors, alternately, until 1870, the college continued to 
prosper, and with its progress, New Mexico continued to 
receive the benefits of true ed ucation. In June 1869, Brother 
Geramius was transferred to South America, as Directory 
of the Christian Brother's College, at Quito, in the Republic 
of Ecuador, Brother Domiciano assuming temporarily the 
charge of the college at Santa Fe, acting as director for only 
four months, or to the first of November, 1870. 

New Director and New Era — Brother Botulph. 

On November 1st, 1870, Brother Botulph became the pres- 
ident of the college, and was the director who acted longest, 
acting as such until the ninth of February, 1905, the date on 
which he died at the Capital, and was succeeded by Brother 
Hermes, who has also already descended to the tomb, his suc- 
cessor being'Brother James Walter, and the latter's. Brother 
Edward, the actual president of the college. 

Tribute to Brother Botulph. 

The State owes Brother Botulph a great debt of gratitude, 
because it was he who, through incredible sacrifices, suc- 
ceeded in constructing the fine buildings that today make 
up the College of Saint Michael, which, it may be said with- 
out any fear of contradiction, are the best of their class, not 
only in New Mexico, but in Colorado and Arizona, their cost 
being, including the fine library, not less than $200,000. 
Out of that sum, about $5,000 were collected for the con- 
struction of said buildings; for the purchase of modern 
school furnishing and the library by Brother Botulph, 
through individual contribution for which purpose he made 
several trips throughout all points in the Territory; the rest 

*The reader is reminded that said Church of San Mig-uel is the 
same built by Oiiate at the beginning- of the seventeenth century — The 
Author. 



550 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

was realized by means of what the Brothers have been able 
to save from what they collect for tuition fees for the 
education given by them to their pupils. 

The Good Done by the College. 

The benefit which New Mexico has received through the 
education imparted by these Brothers is imponderable. 
From its halls thousands of young men have come forth who 
have done honor to the college: have done honor to New 
Mexico, and are a credit to Archbishop Lamy, his worthy 
successors in the Archiepiscopate, and, in no small degree, 
to all and each of the good Brothers who, by means of their 
valuable services, have left imperishable memories in thous- 
ands of grateful hearts, among which, is found that of the 
humblest of them, the author of this work, who avails 
himself of this opportunity to manifest his profound grati- 
tude to the Most Illustrious Archbishop Lamy. in the first 
place, and to his never to be forgotten teachers, the Christian 
Brothers. 

Silver Jubilee. 

On October 29th, 1884, the college celebrated the Silver 
Jubilee or the twenty-fifth anniversary of its existence, and 
on the days 19th, 20th and 21st of the month of June, 1909, it 
celebrated its Golden Jubilee, or the fiftieth year of its 
existence. The celebration in October, 1884, was confined to 
a musical feast by the college band, pontifical mass cele- 
brated by his Lordship, Archbishop J. B. Salpointe, said 
prelate pronouncing at the same time a most tender and 
pathetic allocution on the establishment of the college and on 
the immense benefit received by the people of New Mexico 
through the same; the days' celebration closing with evening 
ceremonies, a feature of them being a great display of 

fireworks. 

Golden Jubilee. 

To the author of this work, the days 19, 20 and 21 of June, 
1909, are the days of the most grateful remembrance in his 
life, as during those three days in the company of hundreds 
of his schoolmates, all of them already advanced in years, he 
was able to contribute his mite in giving splendor to the 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 551 

grand celebration. This is not the place to give full swing 
to the sentiments and emotions which that reunion awakened 
in the heart of the author; the reader can very readily imagine 
them. The author will now give the description of said cele- 
bration by reproducing the programme, as published in 
periodicals edited in English and Spanish, and some com- 
ments by ex-alumni of said college who become the echo on 
that occasion of the sentiments of the great number of the 
Spanish-American and Anglo-American editors of New Mex- 
ico, educated in said college, and who vied with each other in 
dedicating phrases, pregnant with gratitude, in praise of 
their alma mater. Prom "El Independiente" of Las Vegas, N. 
M., July 17, 1909, we reproduce what follows: 

"The following is the programme observed on the days 19th, 
20th, and 21st of June, 1909: 

June 19th. 

"The reception committee receives the outside alumni at 
the depot, at 1:20 o'clock p. m. Annual reunion of the ex- 
alumni and visit to the city at 3 p. m. Base ball game 5 p. 

m. Reunion of the board of directors — 8 p.m. Elocution 
contest by the alumni, actually students. 

Sunday, June 20th. 

8:30 a. m. Reunion of the old alumni at the college. 9:00a. m 
The ex-alumni and the present students march to the cathe 
dral with the college band at their head. 9:30 a. m. Solemn 
Pontitical Mass, His Lordship, Archbishop Pitavalofticiating 
sermon by the chaplain of the college, Rev. Jules Deraches 
11:30a.m. Thestudents giveareceptiontotheoldalumni. 12:30 
p. m. Refreshments after the old style of the college. 1 :30 p. m 
Reunion of the old alumni in which addresses were delivered 
5:15 p. m. Benediction of the Holy Sacrament at the College 
Chapel, 6 p. m. Reception banquet in the teaching hall. 
6:15 p. m. Reception to Most Illustrious J. B. Pitaval, where 
he is welcomed by the governor of New Mexico. 

Monday, June 21st. 

9:30 a. m. Requiem Mass at the college chapel for the dead 
members of the faculty, the old students, and the bene- 



552 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

factors of the college. Celebrant, Rev. G. H. Dougherty; 
sermon, by Rev. A. Fourchegii. 11:30 a. m. Reunion of the 
board of directors and the organization of the association 
of the college ex-alumni. 2:20 p. m. Annual examination 
exercises presided over by his Lordship, Archbishop Pitaval. 
Address to the graduates by ex-alumnus, Nestor Montoya. 
8 p. m. Reception to the old alumni and their families by the 
governor of the Territory. Address of welcome by the 
mayor of the city. 

Gamilo Padilla— Revista Ilustrada. 

The preceding programme v^^as literally carried out. The 
"Alumni Association"' was organized with Frank A. Hubbell 
presiding officer, a secretary, a treasurer, and an executive 
committee composed of one ex-alumni member from each 
county in the Stare. We give below the comments made by Mr. 
Camillo Padilla, editor of "La Revista Ilustrada," of El Paso, 
Texas, an ex-alumnus of the college, and, not to be lavish, 
we will say that the expressions of Mr. Padilla represented 
the spirit of the other editors, ex-alumni, Don Nestor Mon- 
toya of "La Bandera Americana," and of the other news- 
papers of New Mexico. In his "Revista Ilustrada,*' third 
year, numbers 4 and 5, after giving a sketch of the college, 
Mr. Padilla says: 

"Pew establishments of public instruction can count in the 
pages of their history such anniversaries of their foundation, 
as that which St. Michael's College of Santa Fe, N. M.,is 
going to commemorate on the 19th, 20th and 21st of June of 
the current year. 

"St. Michael's College was founded fifty years ago by the 
Brothers of the Christian Doctrine and from that remote 
epoch the institution has progressed in an astounding man- 
ner, several generations having passed through its halls, not 
only of New Mexico, but of many points in other States of 
the Union. 

The most exalted personages in the politics, sciences, arts 
and industries of the Territory (now State) spent the years 
of their childhood in that establishment of instruction where 
they drank from the well-spring of the wisdom of their 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 553 

teachers, the gallant science which raised them to the high- 
est positions in New Mexico. 

"Today there is not a single individual of our most con- 
spicuous politicians, of our most able bankers, of our ablest 
men who has not been an alumnus of that important center 
of instruction where they learned how to make the struggle 
for existence; where all obstacles are overcome; where they 
fitted themselves to triumph on every line.'" * * * 

Said editor, after mentioning the names of several gentle- 
men, prominent in the civic world, all of them ex-alumni of 
the college, and, after dedicating a few tender phrases in 
"remembrance" of the event, closes with these words: 

"The director of this "Revista", also an alumnus of that 
prolific alma mater, the least, perhaps, that has come out 
from among that nide, desires to make present, through 
these brief lines, a cherished remembrance to the grand 
Spanish-American institution which commemorates today 
the beautiful anniversary of its "golden jubilee," 

Monument to Brother Botulph. 

The celebration of the jubilee closed with the approval of a 
resolution which left in the hands of a committee of ex- 
alumni of the college under the chairmanship of Mr. Flavio 
Silva, the erection of a marble monument in honor of the 
Benemeritus Brother Botulph. The monument was made of 
the best Carrara marble and dedicated with unusual and 
splendid ceremonies at Santa Pe, on the 22nd of June, A, D., 
1911. 

Besides the college at Santa F^, the Christian Brothers 
have maintained for many years branch colleges at Mora, 
Las Vegas and Bernalillo, scattering throughout all those 
places the light of the knowledge of human and divine 
science. 

Before beginning the history of education, in the public 
schools, it is but just to give due c-redit to other denominations 
which, like the Catholic church, have also done whatever has 
been in their power, to maintain schools in New Mexico for 
the benefit of their co-religionaries. The ineludible duty, 
however, still presses upon us of making mention of another 




Brother Kdward, President Saint Mielinel's College. 



Brothel' Edward has been President of Saint Michael's College since 
1!)11, and has been a Christain Brother since he became 21 years of 
age. Brother Edward immigrated to America in his early youth from 
Germany, received his education in Ohio. Taught school chiefly in 
Chicago, St. Paul, Minn., St. Joseph, Mo., and prior to his coming 
to New Mexico was principal of St. Vincent's High School, St. Louis, 
Missouri. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 555 

priest and another prelate, who, though they did not do as 
much as Archbishop Lamy in the development of education in 
a general sense, they certainly have done so in another way. 
Notwithstanding the great number of schools with which 
the Capital of New Mexico is endowed, (for it has in addition 
to the College of the Brothers and the Academy of the 
Sisters of Loretto, a great educational institution for the edu- 
cation of the Indians, established by the federal Government; 
another school of the same kind. Catholic in faith, in charge 
of the Sisters of St. Catherine; several schools of the Pro- 
testant denominations, a school conducted by the Sisters of 
Charity for the Orphans, and five public schools) all of that 
notwithstanding, another school was lacking, for the benefit 
of Catholic children that could not attend the above mentioned 
Catholic schools of the city on account of said schools being 
overcrowded, so that an additional school was built. Of that 
school we shall speak now. 

Parochial Schools. 

In 1892, the Most Illustrious Archbishop J. B. Salpointe 
established in Santa Fe three Parochial schools, and in 1893 
he placed them under the charge of the Vicar General, now^ 
Monsignor, Antonio Pourchegii with whom. Father James 
H. Defouri, deceased, (may he rest in peace) did heartily co- 
operate by opening two schools for the children of the 
cathedral and for the children of the parish of Guadalupe, to 
which nearly 300 children attended. These schools were 
discontinued, temporarily, for lack of funds, the schools of 
both parishes being obliged, later on, to consolidate into a 
single one under the charge and responsibilty of said Vicar 
Fourchegii who kept them open v.^ith two sisters as teachers, 
where only female children were taught, with a salary of 
$40.00 per month, each, until the year 1903, when he, acting 
under the instructions, and with the financial aid of Arch- 
bishop Bourgade, then Archbishop of Santa Fe. and others 
erected a modern adobe school house at the cost of $5,000.00, 
andfurnished it withall necessaryand modern school utensils. 
This done the Parochial school of the parish of the cathedral 
became a permanent institution with an attendance of 240 
pupils, of both sexes, and in charge of five sisters. In 1907, 




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ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 557 

Father Fourchegu, acting under the authority, and with the 
financial aid of the Archbishop, erected, at the same place 
and joining the former building (both buildings being close 
to the cathedral,) a larger edifice, built of brick, two stories 
high, at the cost of $12,000.00, and installed, also, a heating 
plant costing $1,000.00, besides the necessary furnishings^ 
which alone cost $1,530.00. The attendance at the present 
date (1912) being about 600, of both sexes, taught by seven 
sisters. To cover the expenses of salaries, etc., a small sum 
is paid for the tuition by the parents of the children. 

Besides the Parochial school just mentioned, the Jesuit 
Fathers have, since many years past, constructed a very 
expensive Parochial school in Old Albuquerque, which is 
a modern and an up-to-date school in every respect. For 
details regarding this institution the reader is referred to 
that part of this work referring to the Jesuit Fathers. 

Public School System. 

The public school system of the State of New Mexico 
has been already presented to the reader from its origin to 
the time in which the territorial legislature passed its first 
laws for its establishment. In accordance with the law in 
force at present, the public schools of New Mexico are in 
charge of the following officers: A committee, or State Board 
of Education consisting of five members, who are the gov- 
ernor, the superintendent of public instruction, and five 
additional members, appointed by the governor, he, the gov- 
ernor, selecting the presidents of state educational institu- 
tions. This body divides the public funds of the general 
treasury among the several counties; prepares the regula- 
tions for conducting the examinations of teachers who apply 
for certificates, selects the text books for the public schools. 
The governor is the ex-officio president of the board, and the 
superintendent, the ex-officio secretary of the same. 

Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

The superintendent of public instruction is, truly, the offi- 
cial who has the active charge and management of the public 
schools in New Mexico. The governor had to appoint every 
two years under the territorial law the superintendent, with. 



558 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

the consent and approval of the legislative council, but now 
the said official is elected by the people like the other state offi- 
cers. The duties of said superintendent are to make trips of 
inspection to the different counties of New Mexico, to look 
after the institutes, or normal schools for teachers; to pre- 
pare the courses of study that must be observed in the 
normal institutes of the counties and in the public schools of 
the state, to keep a record of the proceedings of the state 
board, and such other duties as are prescribed by law. 

County School Superintendent. 

There is elected in each county by popular vote a superin- 
tendent under whose charge are all the public schools of his 
county, subject, however, to the State superintendent. 
The county superintendent has charge of the school fund of 
his county, makes the distribution of same in the different 
districts of his county and is responsible for the government 
of the schools of his county tc the state board. 

School Districts and Municipalities. 

Every county is divided into school districts; those districts 
have legal existence by virtue and effect of the law which 
declares them to be legal corporations, all having the powers, 
faculties and responsibilities corresponding to said institu- 
tions. In each district there are three directors, one of them 
being the presiding officer, a treasurer and a secretary. The 
county school superintendent is the superior officer to whom 
said boards of school directors are subject. In the munici- 
palities, incorporated cities and towns, there is a board of 
education in charge of the schools of the municipality. 
The people also elect the members of these bodies, and they 
have their president, secretary and treasurer. There is in 
each municipality a superintendent of the schools of the 
municipality whose duties are, more or less, the same as 
those of the county school superintendent. 

Number of Students and Condition of Funds. 

According to the school census taken in 1910, there are 
over 93,815 persons, boys and girls, of school age from (5 to 
21 years of age). Of this number 42,280 were enrolled in the 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 559 

public schools of New Mexico at the close of the school year 
in June, 1910. Of the 42,385 pupils, 21,768 were Anglo- 
Americans; 20,397 Spanish-Americans, and 101 of African 
race. At the end of June, 1910, there was in the treasury, 
the sum of $194,224.94, that sum increasing the next year to 
$585,445.05. A large portion of that money comes into the 
treasury from the taxes paid by the people, and the other 
part from what was realized from the public lands through the 
agencies of the federal government, and now through the 
State. 

Sectarian Private Schools. 

The different sectarian denominations have schools in 
almost all points of the State distributed among the coun- 
ties, cities, towns and villages. According to the last official 
statistics, Mr. J, E. Clark, Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion, in hisreport corresponding to the 15th of June, 1908, says: 

"The reports of these schools (sectarian private schools) 
are not complete, but we see by them that there are 1,127 
pupils enrolled in mission schools, and 2,181 pupils in other 
schools which are not designated as mission schools. In the 
Government Indian schools, we have 1,626 pupils enrolled." 

Besides the schools mentioned in the preceding para- 
graphs we have only the State educational institutes left to 
mention. They are the following: 

Pedagogic Institutes of the State of New Mexico. 

A university at the city of Albuquerque under the charge 
of five regents — a school of agriculture and mechanic arts 
at Las Cruces with an equal number of regents — a 
Normal school at Silver City — another of the same nature at 
Las Vegas, each with five regents — a mineralogical school at 
Socorro — a deaf and dumb college at Santa Pe — and another 
for the blind at Alamogordo — an orphan asylum at Belen — 
a military academy at Roswell —a penal and reform school at 
Springer for criminal young men — and another, the Spanish- 
American normal school, very recently established by 
chapter 97 of the laws of 1909, the author of that law being 
the Hon. L. Bradford Prince, who on thatyear, was a member 
of the Senate. That school was established at El Rito, county 
of Rio Arriba. The school was opened for the first time in 



I 



560 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

September, 1909, with very limited resources, yet, through the 
untiring efforts of its board of regents, Messrs. L. Bradford 
Prince, Venceslao Jaramillo, Malaquias Martinez, J. H. 
Sloan, and Squire Hartt, it has had an unexpected success, 
for the first school term of the year 1912, there were 50 
scholars, of both sexes. 

Additional Funds. 

Besides the amounts that enter into the treasury from the 
collection of taxes, as we have already said, the schools and 
educational institutions already mentioned receive, according 
to the last annual report of the Commissioner of Public 
Lands of the State, the following sums as proceeds from the 
sales and leases of the public lands of the State to-wit: The 
general public school fund received, $5,929.95; the Univer- 
sity, $2,758.84; the Agricultural College, $1,383.70; the two 
Normal Colleges, $1,619.03; the Mineralogical School, $647.42; 
Military Academy, $752.58; the Reform School, $808.32; the 
College for the Blind, $836.97; the College for the Deaf and 
Dumb, $575.00. 

Indian Schools. 

There are in the State 25 Endian schools, besides those we 
have already enumerated, in charge of the general govern- 
ment, in which instruction is given in reading and writing, 
arts and trades, to 1933 pupils, boys and girls. 

Recapitulation. 

There are in the State over 1,000 public schools, in which 
are enrolled 50,000 pupils. There are 66 sectarian schools, 
with 5,000 pupils, 18 private schools, with 288 pupils. The 
value of all the scholastic institutions, as calculated by the 
Superintendent of Public Instruction of the State is nearly 
$1,000,000, and the annual expenditures reach up to $275,000. 
The Federal schools for the Indians represent a value of 
$2,036,073. The sectarian and Catholic schools represent a 
value of $300,000. 

Penal and Other Kinds of Institutions. 

The State has, besides the institutions already noted, the 
following; a penitentiary, a hospital for sick miners, an 
insane asylum, which institutions receive, in addition to 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 561 

what belongs to them from the State treasury, out of the 
sales and lease of the State lands, the following suras, 
namely: The hospital for sick miners $1,101.42; the peni- 
tentiary 1155,46; the insane asylum, |638.87; the Capitol 
building, $1,250.34. 

Counties in the State. 

The State of New Mexico is composed of the following 
counties: Bernalillo, Chaves, Colfax, Curry, Dona Ana, Eddy, 
Grant, Guadalupe, Lincoln, Luna, McKinley, Mora, Otero, 
Quay, Kio Arriba, Roosevelt, Sandoval, San Juan, San Miguel, 
SantaF6,Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Torrance, Union, and Valencia. 

Population of New Mexico in Different Epochs, According to the Dif" 
ferent Census of Which There is an Official Record. 

According to the census taken by order of Governor 
Cuberoin the year 1697, there were only 1500 Spaniards in 
New Mexico that year. * (ante) 

In 1750 — (according to Bancroft,) the population was: 
Spaniards 3,779; Indians, 15,921. 

In 1789— The population, according to census ordered by 
Governor de la Concha in that year, was: Spaniards, 16,059; 
Indians, 8,806.— Total 24,865. 

In 1827 — The population according to the census, made in 
that year by order of Governor Antonio Narbona, including 
Spaniards and Indians, f 

Farmers 6,588 

Mechanics 1,236 

Merchants 93 

Surgeons 1 

School Teachers 17 

Day laborers ... 2,475 

Cur^s (Priests) 17 

Bachelors 13,409 

Maidens 13,109 

Married Men 7,677 

Married Women 7,677 

Widowers 713 

Widows 854 



Total 53.866 

* Seep. p. 90, 172, 221, 230, 244, 252, 274, 278, 300, 342, 459, 462, 642, 
723— Bancroft's "Hist of Ariz., and New Mex.'* 

t Pino: "Noticias Historicas," p. .07— (nvim. 4) Nota de Barriero. 



562 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

In 1840 — According to the census ordered by General 

Manuel Armijo in that year, the population was, including 

Indians and Spaniards:* 

Men. Women. 

First District 17,227 15,898 

Second District 11,013 10,566 

Total 28,240 26,464 

Grand Total 54,704 

In 1850 — Governor John Monroe, under the American 
government, for the purpose of the legislative apportionment, 
ordered a census to be taken, excluding the Indians, which 
was done with the following result: f 

Counties. . Population. 

Taos 11,683 

Rio Arriba .... £,946 

Santa Fe 7,701 

San Miguel 7,563 

Santa Ana ... 6,444 

Bernalillo 6,663 

Valencia 5,917 

Socorro 5,067 

Total 60,984 t 

In 1860 — The population was the following: 

Natives 73,856 

From other states 1 , 1 68 

Foreigners 5,479 

Total 80,503 

Or an increase in ten years of 19,519 inhabitants. 

In 1870— Total, 90,573 § 

* Pino: "Noticias Historicas,"' p. 55 — Nota de Barriero. 
t "Bulletin from the Gazette,"' Santa Fe, April 26, 1851. 
+ Though that was the population according- to the official census, 
Helen Haines. "Hist, of New Me.x.," tells us that it was in 1850—61,547. 
<! Bancroft's "Hist of Ariz, and New Mex." p. 72.3. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 563 

In 1880— (Census)— Foreigners 8,948 

Natives 100,773 

Civilized Indians 9,772 

Total. .. 119,493 

In 1890— Natives 119,320 

Foreigners 12,539 

Civilized Indians 8,554 

Total 140,413 

In 1900— (Census)— Total, 193,777.* 



In 1910 — According to the official census taken during the 
year 1910, the population of New Mexico reached the figure 
of 327,695, or, an increase of 133,919 in ten years. The popu- 
lation by counties in the year 1910, according to said official 
census, is the following: Bernalillo, 23,606; Chaves, 16,850; 
Colfax, ] 6,480; Curry, 12,400; Doiia Ana, 12,893; Eddy, 12,400; 
Grant, 14,813; Guadalupe, 10,927; Lincoln, 7,822; Luna, 3,913; 
Mora, 12,611; McKinley, 12,963; Otero, 7,069; Quay, 14,912; 
Rio Arriba, 16,719; Roosevelt, 12,064; San Miguel, 22,930; 
Santa Fe, 14,770; Socorro, 14,761; Sierra, 3,526; San Juan, 
8,504: Sandoval, 8,578; Taos, 12,008; Torrance, 10,119; Union, 
4,528; Valencia, 13, 320. f 

In the said number —327,695— the population of the Indians 
of the state is included. That population according to 
information given to the author of this work by Mr. C. J. 
Crandall, Indian agent at Santa Fe, N. M., in September, 
1910, reaches the figures 18,000, divided in the following man- 
ner: Pueblo Indians, 9,000; Apaches, 1,500; Navajoes, 7,500; 
Total, 18,000. 

In the next chapter we shall treat in detail of the economi- 
cal conditions of New Mexico from the beginning of her 
civilization to this day, 

* Pac. Stat. Pub. Go's. "Hist, of New Mex." Vol. I, p. 163. 
t Taken from the official bulletin published in the New Mexican of 
Santa F^, on the 5th of October, 1910. 



CHAPTER XL 



History of the Commerce and Economical Condition of New Mexico From 
the First Times of its History to the Year 1812, as Written by Don 
Pedro Bautista Pino, as Included in His ^'Historical Notes and 
Statistics of the Old Province of New Mexico," Which he Pre- 
sented to the Cortes of Spain, at Cadiz, in the Year 1812, to 
Which is Added an "Addition by Antonio Barreiro in 1839 and 
Another Addition by Jose Agustin de Escudero both from Mexico, 
in 1843, all of Which is Found From Page 71 to Page 82 Inclu- 
sive of Said "Historical Notes and Statistics" of Said Don Pedro 
Bautista Pino, and the Statistics From 1843 to 1912 — Commerce 
Under the American Government — Corporations — Banking — The 
Santa Fe Trail — Historical Society — Archaeological School — Other 
Incidents. 

As the author considers the narratives of Pino, Barreiro, 
and Escudero invested with an official character, and from 
persons who are trustworthy and of great ability, and who 
had necessarily full knowledge of the commercial conditions 
of New Mexico at those times, has resolved to give the 
information and statistics such as they were given by Pino, 
Barreiro and Escudero,* thus giving the reader the original 
information, the source itself. 

History shows us that up to the epoch in which Mr. Pino 
presented his "Historical Notes," in Cadiz, the commerce of 
New Mexico was not developed to a great extent: that her 
merchants depended almost completely from Chihuahua for 
the importation of their goods which they were wont to 
import by overcoming great obstacles and suffering innum- 
erable sacrifices. Nothing is said by Pino concerning 
Lalande, the first foreign merchant who came to New Mexico, 
in 1804. That omission cannot be explained, for on that year 

* The author of this work owes such valuable information to 
Attorney Eusebio Chdeon, of Trinidad, Colo., (formerly of New 
Mexico) the possessor of Pine's "Historical Notes" a very marked 
favor, which said Mr. Chacon undeservedly made to this author for 
the benefit of history. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 565 

Pino was in Santa Fe. The system and method used by the 
Santa F6 merchants to import their merchandise is given to 
us by Pino in these words. 

Route to Chihuahua. 

^'Experience has shown, that the ordinary precautions 
taken, to cover, without any danger, 40 days' journeys, 
through deserts, until reaching the nearest province, Chi- 
huahua, are not sufficient. It has become necessary to 
arrange that most annoying voyage in the following manner. 
At 43 leagues from the Capital, at the stopping place named 
" Joya de Sevilleta,'" the parties interested in the journey, 
have to meet by the latter part of November, with their 
train loads, fire-arms, ammunitions, arrows, shields, horses, 
etc. Everything is reviewed; and if the number of 500 men, 
and over, is complete, the vanguard is selected, who must 
alternate, in the trip, as the vanguard, also the rearguard, 
and the center guard are named; those who must care for the 
horses and mules: those who must act as sentinels (generally 
over a hundred;) the scouts, who cleave their ears to the 
ground on dark nights to give notice if they hear or feel any 
footsteps, and thus avoid the surprises which they 
occasionally suffer. As regards the provisions needed, they 
consist of over 600 fanegas of flour made into toasted bread 
called "biscocho."' More than a hundred head of cattle are 
killed and made into dry pounded meat, 150 fanegas of corn 
(called pinole), a corresponding quantity of beans, chick-pea, 
some mutton, also a goodly supply of barrels for hauling 
water in the desert places, like the one called "Del Muerto," 
of more than 90 miles without water. All these preparations 
have not at times sufficed for the caravans to escape the 
snares of their enemies." 

Pino, next, cites the sum total of the merchandise imported 
annually from Asia, America and Europe, on an average, as 
it appears in a "report given in 1804, to the consulate at 
Veracruz" of what Mr. Pino calls, "Passive Commerce." 

"Goods from Europe valued at $ 61,000 00 

Idem from Asia valued at 7,000 00 

Idem from America valued at 34,000 00 

Horsesand mules forthe military service 10,000 00 

Total $ 112,000 00" 



566 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Here Pino closes, and Attorney D. Antonio Barreiro fol- 
lows with an "Addition" to what Pino says. Said "addition" 
is a very correct history of the first foreign merchants and of 
the introduction of American commerce into New Mexico 
and Chihuahua, as well as a graphic description of the voyages 
of the caravans and of the courage and intrepidity of the tirst 
merchants and adventurers; of those who followed them in 
that branch, and of how the Indians came to declare them- 
selves enemies to the merchants. * 

Commerce With the United States. 

"The commerce of New Mexico must be considered under 
three aspects, to-wit: The foreign commerce which is carried 
on with North America; that carried on with neighboring^ 
Mexican states; and that carried on within its own interior. 

Description of Trip. 

"The commerce with the United States of North America 
is carried on by means of regulated caravans which arrive at 
Santa Pe usually in July. These caravans consist of ninety or 
one hundred wagons well loaded with goods and are escorted 
by the owners who select from among themselves a leader, 
to whom they render obedience on the road, for they try, at 
all hours, to travel with the greatest precaution so as not to 
be surprised by the numberless, barbarous and warlike 
nations that roam over the horrid deserts lying between New 
Mexico and Missouri, along a stretch of 250 leagues. In the 
evening when the caravans have stopped, they form with the 
wagons a circle within which the people and horses sleep; a 
number of competent sentries are kept on watch all night in 
order to tire on the enemy, in case of need, and thus save 
their lives and property. 

Arrival at Santa Fe. 

"By July, as I have said, they, generally, arrive at Santa 
P6, and this is the occasion in which this Capital presents a 
pleasing and interesting aspect. Then numberless clothing 
stores are opened everywhere; a large number of persons are 
seen who come to this city, which looks like a fair, from El Paso 

*Pino: "Noticias Historicas," p. 72. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 567 

del Norte, Sonoraand from all points of the Territory. This 
is the time all the Anglo-American merchants return to do 
business, and then it is, finally, when a very brisk traffic is 
carried on. Goods become extremely cheap; many mer- 
chants, in order to return to the United States in August, 
sell at cost prices, practically, their surplus, and thus very 
advantageous purchases are made. Goods are sold for what 
they cost at Philadelphia or Saint Louis with scarcely a 
profit of 80, 90 or 100 per cent, and they are also wont to be 
sold with only a 50 per cent. These reckless, cheap sales 
have ruined many merchants, for their losses are from thirty 
to forty thousand dollars, as per calculation, the losses of 
the company that came in the year 1831, amounting to that 
sum. 

Return Trip. 

"By the month of August, the caravans return, only those 
merchants remaining who are interested in beaver hunting 
from which considerable exportations are made. 

"As the exportation is not subject to national tax-duties, 
the American merchants on their return, endeavor to carry 
beaver instead of money, they getting thus two advantages; 
First that of not paying duty for exporting money, and 
secondly, that of carrying to their country an article which 
is there of much value to them, and which is not burdened 
by anything. 

Origin of Caravans, 1831. 

"These caravans had their origin in the year 1831, when 
some adventurers began to come into New Mexico; but, 
gradually, companies of men were successively organized, 
until finally rich merchants came in with large sums of 
money who initiated projects under another order of things 
different from the freighting business. In order to grade the 
progress of this commerce the inserted statement may well 
be seen, as the considerable increase in excise taxes, an- 
nually, will show the balances resulting in this particular. 

"The commerce New Mexico carries on with the neigh- 
boring (Mexican) states is also worthy of attention; Sonora 
and Chihuahua being sufficiently supplied with the foreign 
goods carried herefrom; great benefit resulting to the 



568 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Americans who carry on that trade and who bring a large 
sum of money which circulates in the country both for the 
payment of the excise taxes on their return, as well as on 
account of the amounts which they expend in necessaries 
of life." * 

Barreiro continues enumerating the advantages which the 
commerce of the Americans gave to New Mexico, Sonora 
and Chihuahua, and follows up his interesting narrative con- 
cerning the large sales of sheep, wool and other articles 
which the New Mexicans made at Durango. These sales 
were not of much benefit to New Mexico on account of the 
same having been monopolized by a few individuals, as 
Barreiro states it, in the following words: 

Trade With Durango. 

"The New Mexicans carry also quite an active trade with the 
neighboring States, for they annually take out their wethers, 
their hides, piiion, heavy wool fabrics, tobacco and other 
articles which they sell at good prices. There are individuals 
who have contracts in Durango, by which they deliver annu- 
ally, 15,000 or more wethers, which when delivered brings 
them the sum of $1.12|- or more per head. The wether busi- 
ness is monopolized by a small number of persons, and so it 
is not considered of as much benefit as that carried on in 
pelts, heavy wool work, etc., because this is more equally 
distributed between all classes in New Mexico, specially in 
thelowestand middle class. One is certainly surprisedat 
the general spirit noticed in the New Mexicans to carry on 
trade with the neighboring (Mexican) states, in October 
specially, a multitude of people is seen to go out, and scatter 
in all directions — some going to Chihuahua, some to Tepicor 
Guaymas; some even to the fairs of Aguascalientes and San 
Juan, some to Durango, and some, finally, as far as the Cali- 
fornias. 

"The interior commerce of the country is regular, and the 
most general way of carrying it on is by means of exchange. 
Wethers command a very high price, even more than money 
when used to buy the articles desired; to this we must add 

* Barreiro: "Historical Notes," of Pino p. 73. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 569 

the fact that this traffic is carried on generally on credit, 
from one year to another, and even for a longer time. I 
have stated the cheapness of foreign goods; but the domestic 
articles, such as chocolate, rice, sugar, oil, almonds and 
others of this class are very dear, and, on some occasions, 
very scarce, although these articles are nearly always of an 
inferior quality.* 

The New Mexicans had, too, considerable traffic with the 
nomadic tribes. Their commerce with those Indians con- 
sisted of various articles, trinkets, for which they received, 
in exchange, hides and pelts of good marketable value. 
Nevertheless, the Mexican merchants engaged in trading 
with said Indians, could not realize considerable profits 
from the pelts so bought from the Indians, because of the 
lack of means of exportation, where that industry suffered a 
great deal, and the development of that branch of commerce 
was greatly retarded. Commenting on this point, Barriero 
says: 

"Commerce that is now carried on with savages should 
also require our attention; with vermiUion, knives, biscuit, 
bread toasted in the oven, awls and other trinkets, exquisite 
pelts are bought, which are sold to advantage, and which 
could be put to great uses if the enlightment of the country 
was different; if there were means for the consumption and 
exportation of so rich and abundant market currying, piles 
could be taken out, at a very small cost, that would load 
whole droves. What an immense field has Mexico open for 
developing that industry! What germs of prosperity are 
everywhere presented to us! Even those most remote places 
which are occupied by the savages invite us with precious 
articles, but with which we are as yet unacquainted.'"! 

Origin of Commerce With the United States — 1804. 

Barreiro now enters upon very interesting details regard- 
ing the origin of the commerce between New Mexico and the 
United States. The narrative of that portion of the history 
of our commerce may be said to have sprung in the year 1804. 

*Barreiro in "Noticias Hist." de Pino, p. 73. 
tBarreiro in "Hist. Not." of Pino, pp. 73, 74. 



570 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Advent of First Merchant from Illinois — Lalande, 1804. 

In that year a French merchant, named Lalande, proceed- 
ing from Kaskaskia, State of Illinois, came to Santa Fe, with 
merchandise belonging to a rich merchant called William 
Morrison. Lalande arrived in Santa Fe, not as a free 
merchant, but as a prisoner; he had been arrested by the 
Spanish authorities and was thus conducted to the Capital* 
were he established himself permanently. Afterwards 
another foreign merchant named Pursely, came in 1805. 

Pike and McKnight and Glenn. 

The formal inland commerce, between Mexico and the 
United States, according to Barreiro, had no known origin^ 
and rather seems to have been the result of a casualty than 
that of a premeditated plan of commerce. No knowledge 
concerning it was obtained until after Pike had made his 
report. Jacob Pursely then crossed the regions to the west 
of the Mississippi, with some Indians, to the immediate 
neighborhood of the source of the Platte river, in the Rocky 
mountains, and from them learning of New Mexico, he started 
with some of them, and arrived in Santa Fein 1805, where he 
remained for many years. 

Lalande Marries in Santa Fe — His Death — Barreiro our Authority. 

Although, according to Pike, Pursely was the first Amer- 
ican who visited the plains of the Spanish Provinces, we 
have seen that a merchant from Kaskaskia had already sent 
out, in 1804, a French criole named Lalande (supra) to Santa 
Fe as the place of his distination. The latter, unheeding the 
instructions he had received, and careing only for his own 
interest, remained in the country until his death, leaving a 
large family in Santa Fe and considerable riches. Pike's 
animated descriptions of the country's advantages caused an 
expedition to start on foot in 1812, composed of several 
Americans, at the head of whom was one, McKnight, who 
followed the trail marked out by Pike. As they thought that 
they would not need any permit from the Spanish govern- 
ment to traverse the Territory, and that the transit of 

* Bancroft: "Hist, of Ariz., and New Mexico,"" p. 29. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 571 

foreigners would not be exposed toany embarassments, they 
introduced their goods, disregarding the rights of the 
Mexican government, for which reason they were arrested as 
spies, and were sent as prisoners, to Chihuahua, where they 
remained until the year 1821, when they were set at liberty 
and allowed to return home. The news carried by them, on 
their return induced others to undertake a hke expedition, 
among whose number was one named Glenn, an Ohio mer- 
chant, who, after suffering many privations and overcoming 
numberless obstacles, arrived in Santa Fe in the same 
year, 1821. 

Becknell Follows — 1821. 

In the same year, Becknell, also a merchant, accompanied 
by four adventurers left the the town of Franklin, Missouri, 
en route for Santa Fe, where he sold at a good price the few 
goods he had brought with him, returning alone to the 
United States the next year. Up to that date the commerce 
of New Mexico had been carried on with the Mexican pro- 
vinces in the interior by way of Veracruz, but at such high 
prices that a yard of common calico was worth two dollars. 

Cooper Visits Taos — 1822. 

Next came Cooper and his sons, accompanied by 15 others, 
headed for Taos, with some four thousand dollars in mer- 
chandise, which they conveyed on horses, and arrived at their 
place of destination without any remarkable occurrence 
during the summer of the year 1822. 

Becknell Returns to New Mexico. 

Becknell, with thirty others, and with considerable mer- 
chandise, amounting to $50,000.00, made another expedition, 
to New Mexico, in lo22, shortly after Colonel Cooper, though 
with different success, for wishing to shorten the road, he got 
into the deserts situated between the Arkansas and Cimar- 
ron rivers withoutany other guide than a magnetic compass, 
nor any more water than what he could carr.y along himself. 
When the water gave out they suffered such privations that 
they had to kill their dogs and cut off the ears of their mules 
to appease their thirst with the blood of these animals. Not 



572 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

knowing the proximity at which they were to the Cimar- 
ron river, they resolved to tu rn back to the Arkansas, in which 
voyage they would have perished if the sight of a buffalo 
had not made them conscious that water was close by. This 
circumstan(;e caused some of them to go in search of it, and 
on finding it, carried some to the others who thus refreshed, 
were able to continue their route along the Arkansas till they 
reached Taos where they arrived without any other difficulty 
to surmount.* 

Commerce With United States Enhanced, 1822 — Wagons Used. 

In the year 1822, the commerce between New^ Mexico and 
the United States was greatly enhanced, because in that year 
wagons began to be used; this circumstance gave consider- 
able impulse to the trade between the two countries. On 
that same year the savage Indians initiated the series of 
incursions and attacks on the caravans, which lasted for 
many years. Barreiro charges the merchants with the 
blame and cause of the breaking of the hostilities with the 
the Indians. On that point Barreiro says: 

Merchants Cause of Indian Wars. 

"From the year 1822, the commerce of Santa Fe, so to 
speak, began; and from this epoch on the thing more worthy 
of attention has been the idea of transporting merchandise 
in wagons, an idea carried into effect, in 1824, by a company 
of 80 intelligent Missouri merchants, who were the first to 
set the example followed afterwards by the rest. Twenty- 
five or thirty thousand dollars might have been the value of 
the merchandise of the former which they conveyed partly 
on mules, partly in wagons, and partly in carts. The car- 
avan arrived in Santa Fe with much less difficulty than was 
expected, on account of that being the first trial made and all 
the expeditions, at first, had no other inconveniences than 
those of the road, but afterwards they were also compelled 
to repulse the attacks of the Indians, which attacks were 
provoked by the merchants themselves, who, instead of cul- 
tivating friendly relations with the few and, at the same time 

* Barreiro: in ''Historical Notes" of Pino. ]>. 75. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 573 

peaceful Indians that remained, they would kill, whenever 
the occasion presented itself, in cold blood, any Indian that 
fell into their power, only because some one of his tribe had 
done them or some of their friends some outrage. 

United States Troops Escort the Caravans — Escudero's Trip to 
Washington, 1825. 

"This circumstance compelled them thereafter to join in 
caravans, for mutual protection, and to solicit the protection 
of the government of the United States, which was granted, 
at different periods, from 1827 to 183H, a few escorts under 
the commands of Riley, WDson and Cook, respectively, is 
the only protection which the government has given to the 
commerce of Santa F^. 

"This protection was asked for in the year 1825, by several 
communications addressed to the President of the United 
States, and, among these, those of Mr. Bentham to the 
senate, quoted by Mr. Gregg, in his work "The Commerce of 
the Prairies," but it was also opportunely and energetically 
solicited, on our part, as we were going to make it known 
satisfactorily, by our fellow patriots, in order to render, at 
least, a tribute of justice (which in life he did not receive) to 
the memory of a person who was commissioned for that 
purpose by the political government of New Mexico, and 
made the trip to Washington at his expense, and suffered in 
this troublesome expeditionat a considerable loss of property. 

Governor Baca Sends Escudero to Washington. 

"This person was the attorney, Don Manuel Simon de Escu- 
dero, a resident of Chihuahua, to whom, while sojourning in 
the City of Santa Fe, New Mexico, on the 9th of June, 1825, 
the political chief of the Territory, Don Bertolome Baca, 
addressed him a most pathetic communication in which his 
patriotism was appealed to, to accept the commission he con- 
ferred on him, of going to the United States of North 
America, in accordance with the orders that upon that 
point the supreme government of the nation had given, for 
the purpose of obtaining the protection needed by the cara- 
vans which traveled across the desert, and of insuring our 
borders against the invasions of the savage Indians who were 



574 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

hostile to both. Attorney Escudero accepted the commis- 
sion and gratuitously discharged it, setting out without 
delay, on his journey to Washington. On passing through 
St. Louis, Missouri, where Mr. W. Clarke, Superintendent 
of Indian Affairs, resided, he thought it convenient to 
acquaint him with the object of his mission, and the latter 
answered him, in a note of September 25th, of the same 
year, that the government of the United States sincerely 
wished to prevent the damages caused by the Indians, and 
that when peace and security were established in the fron- 
tiers, it would be possible to carry on trade between the 
two countries with complete freedom; wherefore he did not 
doubt that New Mexico's solicitude would be well received 
by the government of the United States; but that, as this 
matter was beyond his power, since the right of treating 
with foreign nations belonged exclusively to the President, 
it seemed more opportune to him that he (Mr. Escudero) 
should address himself to the President, who was already 
aware of the damages caused by the savage Indians; and to 
that effect he (Mr. Clarke) showed Escudero a copy of a letter 
which the Secretary of War of that republic (the United 
States) had addressed to Mr. Clarke himself, in which he 
manifested to him the great interest the government at 
Washington had in repressing the raids of the savage 
Indians,' and in seeing that Mexicans, who passed over to 
trade with the United States, should be treated in the most 
benevolent manner possible; assuring Mr. Escudero, in clos- 
ing, that he had already been ordered to establish a military 
detachment at the crossing of the Arkansas, through which 
the caravans from North America traveled to New Mexico 
and to Old Mexico, in order to protect them against the 
Indians, and that commissioners had been sent to pacify the 
latter and to place the road in safety." 

Escudero undertook his trip to Washington, and there 
succeeded in interesting the representative of the Mexican 
government in co-operating with himself in all that related to 
the success of Escudero's embassy. Prom Washington, 
Escudero left for Mexico, to urge a more active co-operation 
on the part of the Mexican government. That trip of 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 575 

Escudero and the advantages which redounded therefrom 
are described by Barreiro in these words: 

"In virtue of this communication, Mr. Escudero CDntinued 
his journey to Washington, where he met Mr. Pablo Obregon, 
in charge of the Mexican legation, with whom he came to 
an understanding regarding the success of his mission, and 
with this object in view, he acquainted tiim with it and with 
the documents concerning the same, which he hadin his pos- 
session. Mr. Obregon answered him on January 5th, 1826, 
to the effect that the Mexican government had the same 
intentions, and cherished the idea of giving security to the 
frontier states, promising him, in consequence, to take up 
this subject upon his responsibility, which, however, Mr. 
Escudero continued to press actively on his part, and later 
■communicated the result thereof to the government of Mexi- 
co, through Mr. Obregon himself, as it is shown by the note 
sent to him by that minister, dated on the 12th of the month 
and year mentioned, at Washington, the copies of which we 
have at sight. 

"Although it is believed that St. Louis is the emporium of 
the commerce of Santa Pe, it has been so solely on account of 
some merchants who start out from its immediate vicinities. 
Franklin, situated on the Missouri river, and some neigh- 
boring towns, were so until 1831, from which point the in- 
conveniences of traveling a hundred miles more, in opposition 
to the facility of navigation by the Missouri river, caused . 
Independence, a town situated twelve miles from the Indian 
frontier and at about two or three from said river, to become 
the place of equipment, landing, and departure, where the 
merchants provide themselves with mules, oxen, wagons, 
and other things necessary to undertake their expeditions, 
carrying flour, bacon, sugar and salt. 

Interesting Description of the Journey. 

"The transport wagons most in use are made in Pittsburg 
and are drawn generally by eight mules, or an equal number 
of oxen. The man who first made use of the latter animals 
was Captain Riley; and there are divers opinions as to which 
of the two classes of animals are the m.ost useful. Ordinarily 



576 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

oxen are believed to be the best; both on account of what 
they are able to endure, as because the formation of their 
hoof makes them more apt for bad roads, like these, where 
it was observed how much the poor animals endured; and 
there were some persons who were struck with the original 
occurrence of putting raoccassins on them like those used 
by the Indians, but of a different skin, for those used by the 
Indians were made of buffalo hide without tanning, while 
the latter were made of Cibolo hide perfectly tanned. After 
all these preliminaries are completed, the merchants attend 
to the leasing of the wagons, which they obtain without 
much difficulty, on account of the confidence placed on the 
well known good faith of the conductors. As regards the 
horses or mules to draw the wagons, they are also easily 
obtained, and, as it is said, their manner of harnessing them 
for the road is the same as used in trips in the interior. 
^Some merchants, however, are very original in the harness- 
ing of their mules. 

"After all these bothers, they take the road in the direc- 
tion of Council Grove, ordinarily suffering the inconvenience 
of rain and deterioration of the merchandise; and, in order to 
avoid it, they take care that the wagons have an awning or 
cover made of Osnabur canvass. Many have felt the dis- 
tressing effects of not minding this precaution, and there are 
some who prefer the Mackinaw canvass, both because they 
sell it well without paying any custom duties, and because 
it is a part of the wagon. The rains injure the animals, also, 
for, if the wagons get swamped, they can hardly be pulled 
out. 

"Another common danger in crossing the branches of the 
Osage river is the meeting of (Kansas) Indians which from 
that point on commit a thousand depredations upon the trav- 
elers, robbing them of their goods or coin. 

Camping Places. 

"The perspective presented by the caravan on entering 
Council Grove, (so called from the council which meets there 
of the most respectable persons) is indeed picturesque. Ima- 
gine an infinite number of wagons, open, or uncovered, where 
men of all classes of society are to be seen, and few persons of 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 577 

the fair sex, and an idea may be had of the wonder which such 
a sight must produce to the inhabitants of that town. These 
are the Osage Indians who come there in bands following the 
trail left on the road by multitudes of wagons. The trav- 
elers must exercise great care with them, for, despite the 
treaties which they have made with the United States they 
never fail to insult the weak and the indefensible. 

"At said town the caravan takes its supply of what is more 
necessary to continue on the road; for until that point is 
reached , not even the poorest cabin is to be seen, and, further 
on, there is such a total lack of wood that it is not to be 
found until near the mountains of New Mexico. 

"Having done all this, they prepare to start from Council 
Grove, bound for their point of destination, and, after they 
haveendured the laziness of the conductors and the perversity 
of the mules, they at last take the road, and the first thing 
met with after twelve miles travel is "Diamond Spring" 
which is a clear water spring close to a small creek. At twenty 
miles, the "Cottonwood" is crossed, where the caravan 
becomes joyful on account of the pure air there breathed, 
notwithstanding the fact, that when night is to be spent at 
this point, a high ground must be selected for that purpose, 
on account of the frequency of the rains which, as we have 
said, never fail to cause great damages. The travelers, 
when they arrive, are very desirous of hunting, but are 
generally disappointed, for, excepting the wild peacock, uo 
other kind of animals are found there. 

"On the second day of the journey what is found to be 
more deserving of mention on account of its renown, though 
not because of its importance, is the "Little Arkansas,'" a 
rivulet whose stream is five or six yards in width, at most. 

"When they are about to arrive, some of the men of the 
caravan are in the habit of separating and of making, by 
destroying the banks, some sorts of improvised bridges 
over which the wagons cross. Further ahead the "Cow" is 
seen, another rivulet, similar in every respect to the preced- 
ing one, and crossed in the same manner. The fertile 
valley of the Arkansas is then entered, distant two hundred 
and seventy miles from Independence, where the finest 
perspective is enjoyed, particularly if compared with the 



578 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



aridit}^ observed all along this desert, as far as Walnut creek, 
whose waters, it is said, are very healthy. 

"The next day the road goes through a plain abounding in 
buffaloes and very appropriate for hunting. At a distance 
of 15 miles, the traveler's attention is fixed on "Pawnee 
Rock, ■■ so called on account of a battle which, it is related, 
the Pawnee Indians fought at this place with another tribe 




Kev. Agustin Trucliiird, Third Assistant Vu-ar of 
New Mexico. Died in Fraiu-c in I'.Hl. 



of Indians. Inscribed on said rock may be found the names 
of several travelers who have passed through there. 

"After Pawnee Rock has been passed, the caravan reaches 
a lane called "Ash,'* where a place is found named Cache 
(to hide), because one of the first travelers, in an attack by 
the Indians, hid there the goods he carried. Following the 
road, the Arkansas is on one side and the Cimarron on the 
other. Here the travelers take a supply of water for the 



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580 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

rest of the journey water being scarce from there on. For 
this reason when "Upper Spring" is at last reached, the 
travelers feel quite pleased. Santa F^ is finally arrived at, 
though not without the great inconvenience, caused on 
entering it by the exacting of duties charged at the garitas 
(custom houses), the same being so excessive that sometimes 
they have gone as high up as a hundred per cent, so that the 
merchant has to be satisfied with the profits he may be 
able to make on selling his merchandise in the city. The 
city at first sight has a most fascinating aspecD on account 
of the activity observed in all the shops and stores. 

"Although every class of merchandise is found and used 
there, nevertheless, unbleachiid and bleached cotton has a 
better market; for, although calicoes are sold at a very high 
price and readily, yet the trade in domestic cotton is better. 
It must, however, be born in mind that American goods have 
better sales than English goods.'" * 

Santa Fe Had Factories. 

After giving a geographical description of Santa Fe and of 
relating the unfavorable condition in which agriculture was 
found, Barreiro gives us a detailed account of the articles 
manufactured at the Capital, Santa Fe, whereby it is seen 
that, in spite of our boasted civilization, of the great advance 
we have made in all the branches of industry at the present 
time, there are not, as in those times, at least in Santa F6, 
any factories wherein were made many things which, had 
the industry of that branch been kept up, the City of Santa 
F6 would not be today in the need of importing the articles 
which were formerly manufactured there. Though it be true 
that those industries were of benefit only to the inhabitants 
of New Mexico, it is also true, that on account of the high 
taxes the government charged the merchants, the articles 
manufactured at the Capital could not be exported. Barreiro 
speaking on that subject, says: 

"So far as regards the manufacturing industry, which is 
more advanced than the others, it comprises the manu- 

* Barreiro: In "Hist. Not."' of Pino, p. 79. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 581 

facfeure of blankets, the most marketable being those made in 
imitation of the Navajoes and of those of Saltillo (a city in 
Old Mexico). These are used by everybody in the country, 
and are used by them like the Spaniards use the cloak. They 
also make carpets with black and white squares, used gen- 
erally as floor covers, while the poor people use them for 
dresses. 

"They manufacture other clothes but they are all of the 
same style; the taxes laid on the merchants have caused 
this industry to be almost ignored." * 

Barrel ro then gives us correct information concerning the 
resources collected through the "custom house,'" as follows: 

Income — Statistics from 1820 to 1832. 

"Statement showing the sums collected from the subaltern 
commissaryship, through imposts, from the first of July, 
1820, to May, 1832. 

Years. Cash. Debts. Smuggling 

Deposits. 

?o' he^end lTjlfel8S0. \ ^^^'^^^-^O $00,000.00 | 2,958.C0 
To Xu/^1881^^^' r 35,706.74 16,209.46 00,000.00 

To°Ma"^"l83^^^'''^' \ 25,227.00 39,607.43 00,000.00" 

Number of American Merchants in New Mexico in 1839. 

An omission is observed in Barreiro's narratives which we 
have given in regard to the foreign merchants that were in 
New Mexico at the time when Gregg wrote his work "Com- 
merce of the Prairies'" (from which work Barreiro took this 
information) for Gregg's work was written and published in 
the year 1839. Gregg says that the number of American 
merchants in New Mexico at those times was quite respect- 

* Barreiro. in "Hist. Not."' of Pino, p. 79. 



582 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

able, the same being distributed among Santa F6, San 
Miguel, Las Vegas and Taos, among them were Ledoux, St. 
Vrain, Waldo, and many others whose names appear in 
another part of this work; as the epochs of the Spanish and 
the Mexican governments are covered by this narrative, that 
is, starting from the epoch in which Pino wrote his "Historical 
and Statistical Notes'' in 1812, to the year 1846, when the 
change of tiags was effected, we will give the reader, in closing 
this chapter, a concise narrative of our commerce and its 
development in New Mexico from the time the Territory 
came to form a part of the American Union, to our days. 

Commerce Under the American Government. 

We have already seen that the first wagons were intro- 
duced into New Mexico in the year 1824; we have, also, seen 
that in that year, there were 26 wagons with a hundred men 
employed to manage them in the trade between Santa F6 
and Missouri, and that the amount of merchandise imported 
that year from Missouri was valued at $35,000; that the num- 
ber of wagons went gradually on the increase from year to 
year, and a corresponding increase of trade, so that in 1846, 
when the American army entered New Mexico, the number 
of wagons employed in the caravans reactied the figure of 
444, and the value of merchandise ascended in that year to 
$1,752,250; while commerce received, upcm the annexation of 
New Mexico to the American Republic, such a radical im- 
pulse that the difference between the two governments was 
immediately noticed, the same redounding in favor of the 
American government. By detailing the annual commerce 
and its increase, the reader will see how the traffic between 
the United States, New Mexico and Chihuahua expanded. 
Before the year 1824, w^hich we have already noted, the trade 
with the United States was insignificant, the means of con- 
duction being by loaded mules. There being no positive sta- 
tistics, other than those already given, previous to the year 
1822, we can only give that which is known from the year 
1822 to the year 1823. The sum of merchandise imported in 
1822 and 1823 amounted to $15,000 in 1822, and 112,000 in 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 583 

1823. Now we will give in tabulated form the sums to which 
merchandise thus imported amounted per year, commencing 
in the year 1825. The tabulary follows: 

Year. 
1825 
1826 
1827 
1828 
1829 
1830 
1831 
1832 
1833 
1834 
1835 
1836 
1837 
1838 
1839 
1840 
1841 
1842 
1843 

Between the years 1843 and 1846 it amounted to $1,752,250, 
as we have said.* 

First Railroads in New Mexico. 

Manufacturing industries, in the sense in which the}^ ought 
to be understood, do not exist, nor have ever existed in New 
Mexico. Some saw and flour mills, as well as some brick kilns 
are to be found, but their joint value cannot be said to reach 
$1,000,000, so that that branch of the mercantile industry 
has not advanced much until the change of governments. The 
main trade of New Mexico at the present time consists in the 
importation of merchandise from the eastern states, for the 

*Haines" "Hist, of New Mex."" p. 154. 



Amount. 


No. 


wagons employed 


$ 65,000.00 




35 


90,000.00 




60 


85,000.00 




55 


150,000.00 




100 


60,000.00 




30 


120,000.00 




70 


250,000.00 




130 


140,000.00 




70 


180,000.00 




105 


150,000.00 




80 


140,000.00 




75 


130,000.00 




70 


150,000.00 




80 


90,000.00 




50 


250,000.00 




130 


50,000.00 




80 


150,000.00 




60 


160,000.00 




70 


450,000.00 




230 



584 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

ordinary consumption of the mining camps and other indus- 
tries, and for the needs of the inhabitants of the state. From 
1846 to 1876, or, in the thirty years that intervened between 
the change of governments and the advent of railroad hues, 
no truthful statistics are found about the increase of com- 
mercial traffic, for the reason that since 1846 no duties have 
been paid, and, consequently, no account was kept of the 
importations and exportations; nevertheless, by calculations 
made by Bancroft* there is reason to believe that at the time 
of the entry of the first railroad line, the Atchison, Topeka 
and Santa Fe, to the year 1876, it was not under $2,000,000, a 
year. 

In that year (1876) the celebrated annual trips of the 
caravans ceased, the same being replaced by the railroad, 
the Territory receiving, by the change, the first and most 
beneficial impulse which served as an incentive for the 
material development of the principal industries — stock- 
raising, mining and agriculture. 

With the coming of the railroad the values of all property 
were enhanced, although not to the degree that was to be 
expected, for the simple reason that the said railroad line, 
the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, being a trunk hne and 
having California and the Pacific coast as its terminal, its 
owners did not take kindly to the unfolding of the industries 
of New Mexico, dedicating all their efforts to the enhance- 
ment of the population and wealth of the flourishing state of 
California. All that notwithstanding, the Territory con- 
tinued progressing in an astonishing manner, so much so 
that, to the year 1890, there were already several railroad 
lines that traversed the Territory, making a total sum of 
1,264 miles and a half, and bringing into the Territory all of 
them together, a total of 152,524,565 pounds, f enabling us to 
assert that, at the present date, the number of railroad miles 
in the State is not under the double of the figures which we 
have just given, from which the reader may be able to form 
his own idea as in 1905, according to official statistics, there 
were 2,556^ miles of railroad valued at $500,000,000. 

In the 3^ear 1910, according to the official information given 

* Bancroft: "Hist, of Ariz, and New Mex."' p. 67 L 
t Gov. L. B. Prince Rep. Secy, of Interior, 181)0 p. 22. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 585 

to the author of this work by C. V. Safford, the travel- 
ing auditor of New Mexico, there are in New Mexico: 

Trunk and auxiliary railroad lines 13 

Mileage, and telegraphic and telephone lines in 

active operation of said lines 2,758 

Industrial railroad lines 9 

Mileage of said lines 165 

Total railroad lines 22 

Total mileage in operation 2,923 

Total telegraphic and telephone lines 4,731: 

The actual value of said lines reaches up to $77,000,000. 
From that sum a tax is collected at the rate of an appraise- 
ment upon 20 per cent of said sum of $77,000,000. According 
to said auditor, said railroad lines represent 24.218 per cent 
of the whole property of the State subject to taxation. 

Incorporated Corporations for Pecuniary Ends. 

According to an official communication addressed to the 
author of this work by Mr. Nathan Jaffa, Secretary of New 
Mexico, dated at Santa Fe, on May 19th, 1910, there were at 
that date 1358 companies and corporations organized and 
incorporated under the laws of New Mexico for pecuniary 
ends divided in this manner: 

Companies for certifying Real Estate Titles ... 25 

Banks and Trust Companies 39 

Loan and Building Associations 12 

Construction and Idem Associations 14 

Mercantile Companies 219 

Manufacturing Companies 125 

Irrigation Companies 70 

Mining and Foundry Companies 380 

Stock Raising and Farming Agriculture Com- 
panies 103 

Railroad Companies 45 

Telegraph and Telephone Companies 28 

Hotels 6 

Light, Gas and Fuel Companies 41 

Saving Companies 149 

Publishing Companies 21 

Miscellaneous 71 



Grand total 1,358 



586 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Banks and Banking. 

Prom this showing, the reader will have no difficulty in 
understanding that for the existence of such a large number 
of companies and corporations, the economical and industrial 
condition of the State must be very satisfactory, all of which 
gives assurance of a more hopeful future, specially at this 
time that New Mexico is made a State of the American 
Union. 

We shall now give the condition of the banking industry, 
which, among all civilized nations, is the most certain index 
of the economical development of nations and political 
entities. By an official letter of said financial auditor of New 
Mexico to this author dated May 19, 1910, it is seen that 
there were, at that date, in New Mexico the following - 
banks, viz: 

National Banks -il 

Territorial Banks 39- 

Total 80 

The capital, resources and liabilities of said banking in- 
stitutions, according to said auditor, ascends to a cash capital 
of $3,251,900. 

Resources and liabilities $25,266,487. 

Speaking of the financial condition of New Mexico in his 
said letter, Mr. Safford closes with these words: 

"The fact is worthy of mention that, during the last nine 
years, not one single territorial bank has been closed through 
lack of resources. Only oneof the national banks has gone into 
liquidation, and that without its stock holders suffering any 
great loss. During the same period of time, a private bank, 
which was not under my jurisdiction, also went into liquida- 
tion, its depositors suffering a small loss. Considering well 
what is exhibited, says the auditor, our financial record 
could not be more favorable." 

Real and Personal Properly Values. 

The enhancement of real and personal estate values (mov- 
able and immovable property) subject to taxation has been 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 587 

more remarkable from the year 1881 onward. According to 
the report rendered to the Secretary of the Interior, Hon. 
Henry M. Teller, by Lionel Sheldon, Governor of New 
Mexico, dated September 6th, 1883, it is thus shown. 

Year 1881 real estate subject to taxation. .$14,088,554 
Year 1882 real estate subject to taxation . . 20,441,395 
Year 1883 real estate subject to taxation . . 27,137,003 

Thus, the increase of the value of said properties went on 
growing from year to year until the year 1889, when it 
reached the figure of $46,041,010. In 1909 it came to $58,- 
500,000, and 1910 it went up to $62,800,000. 

Historical Society and Newspaper Press. 

The Historical Society of New Mexico was organized in the 
year 1859, Colonel J. B. Graysen being its founder and tirst 
president. It became dismembered during the civil war, 
and was not reorganized until the year 1880, in December, 
when it celebrated its twenty-first anniversary by electing 
Hon. L. B. Prince, as its president. Mr. Prince has con- 
tinued in that post until the present time, and the flour- 
ishing condition in which that society is found to day, is due 
to him. In 1884, the Territory assigned to it the rooms 
which were formerly used for legislative purposes — the two 
eastern halls of the "old palace." As the collection of historical 
objects increased, other compartments of the building were 
added to it, until it actually occupies the eastern half of said 
building. It owns a collection of gems and antique relics 
of an immense historical value, from prehistoric times, 
among which is found a public collection of ver}^ old Spanish 
manuscripts. Its library comprises the most rare works 
and of great merit, the same being considered the best 
between New York and San Francisco. 



TheP 



ress. 



The newspaper press of New Mexico, English and Spanish, 
has progressed marvelously. There are to be found today 
134 newspapers, as daily and weekly publications. 



588 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Archaeological School and Museum of New Mexico. 

At the annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of 
America, held in Chicago, December 31, 1907, the council 
decided to found a school of A merican Archaeology. Already 
this great international organization had established schools 
in Athens. Rome and Jerusalem, and its action in deciding 
to establish an organization for the study of the ancient 
civiHzations of America, was hailed with great satisfaction 
throughout the United States. After several months spent 
in considering the claims of various cities for the location of 
the institution, the managing committeeof the school decided 
upon the old Spanish-American capital of Santa F6 for its 
location. Here was found the richest archaeological dis- 
trict in the United States, a place from which the study of 
the ancient civilizations of America could be conducted in 
the field with the least inconvenience and expense, and with 
the most substantial results Moreover, the Territory of 
New Mexico, through its legislature, generously placed 
at the disposition of the school, the old Palace of the 
Governors, which was constructed in the early part of the 
seventeenth century for the residence of the Spanish gov- 
ernors, and for three hundred years has been the seat of 
authority under Spanish, Mexican and American rule, suc- 
cessively. It is the noblest remaining monument to the 
memory of the Spanish founders of the civihzaticn of the 
southwest. With proper alteration it was found to be admir- 
ably adapted to the purposes of a School and Museum of 
Archaeology. The modern improvements in the way of pan- 
eled window and door casings, mantles, etc., have been 
removed, and the style of the Spanish founders has been 
adhered to as strictly as possible in the restoration. The 
ancient vigas and hand-chopped slabs forming the ceilings of 
the various rooms have been again brought to light, and one 
may now behold the ancient Palace of the Governors more 
primitive in appearance than it has been for the last hun- 
dred years, and yet in a state of repair that will ensure its 
endurance for many centuries to come. It seems most 
fitting that this venerable structure should be made to dis- 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 589' 

play the history of the southwest for the past centuries, and 
this, it is understood, is to be its destiny. 

The Territorial legislature in thus establishing this 
archaeological school in New Mexico, under an act entitled 
"An Act to Establish a Museum for the Territory of New 
Mexico," (Chap 4, Laws of N. M. 1909) approved February 
19, 1909, appropriated the annual sum of $5,000 for the care 
and improvement of the building, grounds and museum, 
the obtaining of collections, books and equipment for the 
museum, the preservation of archaeological sites in New 
Mexico, the publication of investigations and for incidental 
expenses necessary to the administration of the museum 
(Sec. 8 of said Chap. 4 supra). These annual appropriations 
are to be paid by warrant from the auditor of public 
accounts on presentation of vouchers properly signed by the 
secretary and treasurer of the Board of Regents in charge 
of the museum. 

The Santa Fe Trail — Its End — Formally Dedicated at the City of Santa 
Fe, August 21, 1911 — Prayer by Rev. Jules Deraches — Miss 
Madeline Mills, Daughter of Governor Mills, Uncovers the Histor- 
ical Slab in the Presence of a Great Concourse of People — Several 
Addresses Are Made. 

(From the New Mexican, August 26, 1911). 

"In the presence of the governor of New Mexico, of many 
prominent citizens, and of a great concourse of people, the 
dedication of the slab bearing the inscription which marks 
the end of the Santa Fe trail, took place last Monday. 

"The veil over the inscription was withdrawn by Miss 
Madeline Mills, daughter of Governor Mills, she appearing 
very appropriately in white dress at the moment of removing 
this, the last and most remarkable of the granite fingers which 
marks to future generations the famous trail which ends here. 

"At the opening of the exercises. Rev. Jules Deraches, 
chaplain of St. Vincent's Sanitarium, offered prayer. Mrs. 
L, Bradford Prince spoke next, she formally delivering the 
monument to the governor of the new state. Messrs. Selig- 
man, Catron, Nestor Montoya and Ex-Governor L. Bradford 
Prince followed with addresses." 



590 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

The Wagon Route — Santa Fe Trail — Trip of, and Reception to Williams, 
the Historian. 

A special meeting of the city council was held, Monday, 
August 28, 1911, at the court house, which was called by the 
mayor of the city, in order to give an appropriate welcome to 
Dr. Walter Williams, dean of the college press of the Univer- 
sity of Missouri, and a noted historian and writer in reviews, 
who crossed the Santa ¥e trail in an automobile with the pur- 
pose of gathering data and information for a book regarding 
the trail, and also to promote the project of a transcontinental 
cart or vehicle road with the trail as one of its great links. 

A little after ten o'clock in the morning. Dean Williams, 
his son Moss Williams, and his secretary. Miss Quinn, 
reached the court house. Williams was introduced to the 
mayor and council of the city by the local editor of the New 
Mexican who gave information of Williams' mission to this 
place, and of the peculiar feat he had just accomplished, as 
the first man in the world who had traveled over all the trail 
in an automobile. 

Mr. Williams, then, addressed the mayor and aldermen 
stating that it was a great pleasure to him to see here faces 
that were familiar to him. He said that he had with him a 
letter from the mayor at the end of the trail, in Old Franklin, 
Missouri. He explained the objects of his trip, and stated 
that one of them was to gather new material in reference to 
the trail, and that he had had the good luck of meeting many 
persons who gave him valuable information. 

City Council and Citizens Extend Warm Welcome — Santa Fe Trail 
Discussed by Distinguished Guest-Messrs. T. B. Catron and 
Benjamin M. Read — August 28, 1911 — Mayor's Address. 

In reply to Mr. Williams, Mayor Seligman said: "It gives 
me much pleasure and it is indeed an honor for me to 
welcome you to Santa F6, the City of the Holy Faith and the 
end of the Santa Fe trail. And as the first to travel this 
ancient and honored trail in a motor driven vehicle, I welcome 
you. 

"This trip of yours teaches a lesson — the fire and reso- 
lution of long ago 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 591 

"Your mission, Mr. Williams, is most praiseworthy and 
manifests a zeal which cannot but redound to the credit of 
its author and be of vast importance to the several states 
and cities interested. I assure you that the pioneers, the 
citizens of today, the city council and the motherhood of 
Santa Fe appreciate your efforts in the noble and grand work 
you have undertaken to connect this country ocean to ocean 
by a great transcontinental, throbbing highway! 

"Only a few days ago we celebrated the marking, by a 
suitable memorial stone, the end of the Santa Fe trail so far 
as it related to the highway itself. And now we are at work 
to further memorialize the trail in marking the spot by 
erecting a suitable memorial arch. P'or the old Santa Fe 
trail cannot be too much in evidence, it cannot be too 
highly honored or exalted. Santa Fe, the ancient city, 
is one of the most progressive, and Santa Fe is the most 
unique, and yet the most beautiful city, w^e think, in the 
country, and extends to you, sir, her hospitality." 

Following the mayor's greeting, Mr. Williams asked the 
mayor to be so kind as to write a letter back to the mayor 
of Old Franklin, Missouri. Mr. Williams added that he 
felt that Missouri would be a greater state than it is if it 
had not parted with so many of its citizens who came to 
New Mexico and the southwest. 

Mr. Catron s Address. 

Mayor Seligman then asked Mr. Catron to say a few 
words. Mr. Catron talked for half an hour or more, telling 
of incidents relative to the old trail, the heroes who crossed 
it, the men who made famous rides over it, and how he had 
lived at Boonville and there heard so much of Santa Fe that 
he finally moved here in 1866, traveling over the trail. 

He said that the trail had never been worked on to any 
great extent; no large sum of money had been expended 
"fixing it up." He compared it to the ancient trails or roads 
of the past and said that it undoubtedly eclipsed anything 
the Romans built in length and today eclipsed anything they 
left. 

He paid a tribute to roads in general calling them "the 
beginning of commerce, the marks of civilization." He said: 



592 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

"The public must have communication, but we are beyond 
the idea of using these highways for business. We have 
railroads to transact that, to carry our freight. But we need 
them for auto traffic and the auto has come to stay "' 

Discussed Statehood. 

Before closing Mr. Catron said: 

"Mr. Williams, the people of your state like the 'people of 
others states, through their representatives in Congress 
have told what we may do and what we may not do for a 
long time but soon we are going to have a voice in telling you 
what to do. We are going to have Senators and Congress 
men of our own and these will have a say about the governing 
of others as others have governed us." 

Mr. B. M. Read on the Trail. 

He said in part: 

"Mr. Mayor, Members of the City Council. Ladies and 
Gentlemen: I have been requested to say a few words on 
the Santa Fe trail. I might say first of all that the popular 
belief that Mr. Becknell was the first merchant to cross the 
trail is erroneous. Missouri was not the first state in the 
Union to introduce American merchandise in New Mexico. 
That honor, without detracting the credit which might 
rightfully belong to Missouri goes to Illinois. A merchant 
from Kaskaskia, Illinois, sent in 1804, a Frenchman named 
Lalande with American goods to New Mexico. Lalande was 
arrested by the Spanish soldiers before reaching Santa F6. 
In Santa Fe his goods, or part of them, were confiscated. 
The balance he sold, kept the money, settled in Santa F(^ and 
married a Spanish lady. The same year another merchant 
came to Santa Fe from Missouri, his name wasPursley. He 
was more successful, sold his goods and went back to 
Missouri. The next man to come to New Mexico, not as a 
merchant, but as an explorer, was Colonel Zebulon Pike, in 
1805. Pike was arrested by the Spanish authorities near the 
place where now stands the town of Alamosa, Colorado, and 
taken to Chihuahua as a prisoner. Then came the first ex- 
pedition of American traders headed by McKnight, also 
from Missouri. This was in 1812. McKnight and all the 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 593 

members of his party were also made prisoners, their goods 
confiscated and they were taken to Mexico where they 
remained until 1821. That year, 1821, two more expeditions 
of American traders from Missouri came to Santa Fe, 
headed by Glenn and Becknell respectively, and another 
headed by Cooper and his sons, came to Taos — also from Mis- 
souri. Up to this date only mule pack trains had been used. 
In 1822, 80 merchants of Missouri organized formally the 
trade over the Santa Fe trail and sent to Santa Fe $300,000 
worth of American goods, using for the first time wagon 
trains. That same year the trade by wagons was extended 
from Santa F6 to Chihuahua, Sonora and Durango, Mexico. 
In June, 1825, Governor Bartolome Baca, sent as special 
envoy by order of the Mexican government, Mr. Simon 
Manuel Escudero to interest the American government 
in the establishment of military escorts to protect the 
freighters from Independence to Fort Bent, the Mexican 
government obliging itself to furnish troops from Fort Bent 
to Santa Fe. 

"In Washington, Escudero was assisted by Senor Pablo 
Obregon, then in charge of the Mexican legation there. 
Escudero's mission was successful, the American govern- 
ment furnishing the requested protection and from 1827 to 
1833 American soldiers, under the command of Colonels 
Riley, Watson and Cook, respectively, protected the freight 
trains as far as Bent's Fort, and from there to Santa Fe the 
Mexican soldiers escorted them. That is succinctly, a brief 
historyof the Santa Fe trail in so far as it relates to trade. 
Now with reference to its connection with the establishment 
of the overland mail, express and passenger traffic over the 
same trail it would be impossible to go now into details, not 
wishing to take up your time with a full statement on that 
point, but would simply state, that in the year 1887, a man by 
the name of A. L. Carpenter, who was from 1863 to 1866, the 
head manager of the overland mail, express and passenger 
traffic from Kansas City to Santa Fe, wrote a complete 
history of the trade, giving a detailed account of the number 
of stations, passenger fare, which was $175 for each pas- 
senger from Kansas City to Santa Fe, with an allowance of 
40 pounds for baggage and a pair of blankets, and the express 



594 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

charges for carrying money which was §85 per $1,000 {%l per 
pound for gold and silver bullion.) 

"The line was then owned by Sanderson and Barlow and 
it necessitated 13 days and 6 hours to make the trip from 
Kansas City to Santa Fe. Mr. Carpenter's articles were 
published October, 1887, in the Kansas City Journal, one 
year after the famous overland express office of Sanderson 
and Barlow, at the corner of Second and Union streets, in 
Kansas City, had been destroyed by the cyclone of 1886 which 
killed 30 persons. I have the article alluded to." 

In the next chapter we shall deal with the subject of grants, 
state government and officers, administration of justice, of 
the question of statehood, and other matters of general 
interest. 



CHAPTER XIL 



Grants or Donations of Land — Government, Officers, and Administra- 
tion of Justice — Under the Mexican Government — Under the Ameri- 
can Government — Tribunals of Justice — Sheriffs and Gonstables — 
Governors Under Military Government — Under the Organic Law — 
Secretaries of State — Judges of the Supreme Court — Delegates in 
Congress — Territorial Legislatures and Their Presiding Officers — 
Bar Association — Celebration of Marshall s Anniversary — State- 
hood Question. 

Prom the first times of the conquest, the Spanish govern- 
ment reahzed the necessity of being hberal in tlie act of 
donating lands with the object of peophng the Territory and 
furthering civilization by means of agriculture. Thus it was 
that it covered the Territory with grants to particular indi- 
viduals, imposing always the condition that settlements 
should be established which never were to be abandoned. 
Neither the Spanish, nor the Mexican government, ever in- 
tended that the ownership over those grants should ever be 
of others than of the legitimate descendants of the original 
grantees, but with the change of governments, 1848, the 
Territory passed over to the American government, which, 
by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, bound itself to protect 
said grantees and their successors. In fulfillment of that 
obligation, the American congress decreed on July 22, 1854, 
the establishment of a surveyor general dispatch, with a 
surveyor general at its head, for the purpose of having all 
public lands surveyed, as well as those which belonged to 
private individuals, and the President appointed a Mr. 
Pelham as the first surveyor general. The latter immedi- 
ately after his arrival, caused a general surveying of the 
public lands to be made, defining at the same time the 
boundaries of the private grants, where by it was learned 
that the total area of public lands was 2,293,142 acres of land, 
and the total area of the Territory 77,568,640 acres or 121,291 
square miles. The said surveyor general was empowered 



596 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

to receive the claims of the grantees, to examine them, and 
to approve or disapprove the grants, his opinion being sub- 
ject to the action of the congress of the United States. Many 
vt^ere the grants approved by said surveyor and the congress 
of the United States until the year 1891, when by an act 
approved by the congress on the third day of March, a tri- 
bunal was established with the sole object of examining, 
approving or disapproving said grants in the Territories of 
New Mexico and Arizona, the passage of such an act having 
been occasioned by the great confusion, that on account of 
said grants, existed in the matter of titles to land in said 
Territories from which great obstacles resulted in the 
development of the industries of both Territories, The 
number of grants that had been tiled in the office of the sur- 
veyor general, until the date of the formation of said tribunal, 
reached the tigure of 198 among the approved and disap- 
proved grants. Said tribunal or land grant court, was or- 
ganized in the city of Santa Fe, in July, 1891, and closed its 
sessions, in the year 1904, having approved 2,051,526 acres of 
land and disapproved 33,439,493. With the closing of said 
tribunal the chaotic condition of things in reference to the 
permanent settlement of said grants remained forever 
removed and New Mexico entered more fully into the 
development of all its industries. 

Government Officers and Administration of Justice. 

During the incumbency of the Spanish government, the 
civil and political government of the Territory was almost 
exclusively in the hands of the governor, who was at the same 
time both political and military governor. According to Pino 
the civil and political government was organized in the fol- 
lowing manner: 

"The whole province was divided into seven alcaldeships, 
the alcaldes serving without salaries, and subject to the poli- 
tical and military governor, without an attorney general nor 
even a secretary, because there is none in the whole province. 
He, the governor, has as coadjutors (helpers) two lieutenants 
and two ensigns. 

"From the decisions of the governor there is no appeal in 
civil or criminal cases other than to the audience of Guadala- 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 597 

jara, about 500 leagues distant. In military affairs it was for 
many years subject to the viceroyship of Mexico (800 leagues), 
until the high court of internal provinces was established in 
Chihuahua (240 leagues)." * 

Under the Mexican Government — Territorial Deputation a Nullity for 
Want of Authority — Delegates, Etc., to Mexican Congress, Etc. 

In the year 1827. after the independence of Mexico, the 
administration of justice was carried on in accordance with 
the laws of the Mexican Republic. Let Attorney Barreiro 
give us the description of the new regime of government 
under the Mexican Republic. Barreiro speaks: 

"Political government in New Mexico is entrusted to a 
chief whom the government appoints and removes at will, 
without the latter having a formal secretary; in general it is 
believed that the political chief is the judge of alcaldes, and 
is also an appellate tribunal to which the litigants have 
recourse to ask redress from judgments which they con- 
sider unjust; from this error the consequence comes that the 
said chief is always busy with ridiculous presentations and 
has his hands full of impertinent complaints against the 
judges (alcaldes); if a political chief wishes to abuse this 
authority, conferred on him by ignorance, how many evils 
will he not cause?" 

Territorial Deputation. 

"This body is a nullity, because it has not enough authority 
to act by itself; hence it follows that without a new law or 
regulation under a different principle, the powers of the 
deputation which it possesses now by chapter 20 of the decree 
of June 23, 1813,— are absolutely useless, some because they 
are inconsistent with our system of government, others, be- 
cause they are insufficient for the needs of the country. 

"I decline to speak to the government more extensively 
upon this particular subject, because as I am informed, the 
territorial deputy, Px-esbyter Antonio Jose Martinez, made 
an exposition which the deputation approved and sent over 
to this government wherein he demonstrates with various 



* Pino: "History Notes," p. 25. 



598 



ILLUSTKATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



reasons the uselessness of said deputation, and the advan- 
tage, of having its powers merged into those of the aldermen 
and political chief." * 

The above remarks show the systems of civil and political 
government, until the year 1846, when General Kearny 
established temporarily a territorial government, about 




Right Rev. Antonio Fourcliegu, 

Viciir General of New Mexico since 1884. Elevated 

to the ecclesiastical dignity of Domestic 

Prelate to the Pope, June, 1911. 



which the reader is already well informed. Before taking 
up again the form of government which obtained in New 
Mexico after Kearny organized the territorial government, 
it is proper for us to dwell, as far as existing data will justify, 
into the recognition given New Mexico by the Mexican cen- 
tral government in the national and state legislatures. 

* Barreiro: "In Hist. Not." of Pino, p. 26. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 599 

New Mexico was, it seems, at all times represented in the 
National Congress by a delegate ("Diputado Territorial,") 
and in the legislature of Durango and Chihuahua (when these 
twoand New Mexico were formed into the"Provincia Interina" 
and afterwards when New Mexico was made a territory but 
dependent on Chihuahua's legislature) by senators and re- 
presentatives. Of these officials and the manner of their 
election we will now occupy our attention. The reader will 
bear in mind that we are dealing with incomplete, informal, 
irregular, and chaotically kept records and confused official 
documents, now in the archives in the surveyor general's 
office. 

Delegates to the Cortes (Congress). 

Imperial was the first form of government of Mexico after 
its independence from Spain, consequently its first national 
legislature was called "Cortes," as is the national congress 
of Spain called to this day. 

Lorenzo Cutierrez. 

The journal of the "Diputaci6n Provincial" of August 29, 
1822, shows that on that day "a report from ex-Delegate — 
"Ex-Diputado" — from this Province, Sr. Lorenzo Gutierrez, 
was read setting forth the matters transacted by him in 
favor of this Province in the "Diputacion de Durango."' 
Gutierrez so far as can be ascertained was not a resident of 
New Mexico. There is nothing to show when and how he 
became New Mexico's first representative. 

Representatives Perez Serrano Aguirre and Rivas. 

The next mention of representatives is made at the session 
of December 20, 1823, when Messrs. Francisco Perez Serrano 
Aguirre and Francisco Rivas made claim for the reimburse- 
ment to the national treasury of the sum of $2,354.00, which 
amount had been paid by said treasury for their services 
"as representatives from this Province." This claim was 
left in abeyance until the session of January 9, 1824, when 
it was refused. In this last mentioned session, Rivas is men- 
tioned as "suplente" (proxy). Rivas' claim was allowed 
afterwards (session of April 24, 1824). 



600 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Juan Bautista Vigil, Delegate to Durango. 

Again on April 12, 1824, the journal of the "Diputacion" 
shows that "it was agreed that Delegate (Diputado) Juan 
Bautista Vigil go the capital of the 'Estado del Norte' 
(Northern State). The sum of $1,000 was appropriated to pa^^ 
for his services." This was done on motion of Governor 
Bartolom^ Baca, the presiding officer. 

The Durango Deputation Elects Delegate and Names Manuel Armijo as 
Proxy — Suggestion for New State. 

At the session of July 18, 1824, a communication from the 
"Diputacion"' of Durango was read in which the New Mexico 
assembly was notified that the Durango assembly (Diputa- 
ci6n) had elected the regular delegate for New Mexico to that 
assembly and Manuel Armijo as proxy. A decree from the 
Durango assembly was also read in which it was provided 
that Durango should be erected into a state by itself and 
declaring Emperor Iturbide an outlaw and a traitor. 

New Mexico is Made Territory — Delegate Vigil s Message — De'egate 
Alarid. 

At the session of August 10, 1824, a communication from 
Juan Bautista Vigil was read informing the assembly of the 
unexpected change and mentioning Jose Rafael Alarid, who 
it appears, w'as New Mexico's representative in Mexico. The 
law erecting New Mexico into a territory was read and Vigil 
was ordered to come back to Santa Fe. 

Don Santiago Abreu Mentioned as Delegate. 

Again the New Mexico assembly at its session of Novem- 
ber 18, 1824, took up the delegate question. At that session 
the journal shows that an official communication "had been 
sent to Delegate (Diputado) Dn. Santiago Abreu.'" But noth- 
ing can be found on the date and manner of Abreu's elec- 
tion, yet there is no doubt that he was then New Mexico's 
delegate to the Mexican Congress, for the matter is again 
referred to at the session held on December 17, 1824, the 
journal showing that "Mr. President referred to the election 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO 601 

for a delegate to the Cortes (National Congress) held by the 
'ayuntamiento' (municipality) of La Canada (Santa Cruz 
precinct in northern Santa Fe county) which resulted in 
favor of the citizen, Santiago Abreu."' 

Proxy Rado Asks to be Named Successor to Alarid. 

Manuel de Jesus Rado was Alarid's proxy, the journal of 
the assembly of March 9, 1825, showing that Alarid's term 
had expired and Abreu had not as yet reached the City of 
Mexico, whereupon Rado petitioned the New Mexico deputa- 
tion to authorize him to take Alarid "s place, the deputation 
answered him in the negative, citing as a reason the fact that 
the supreme government had suggested the continuation in 
office of Delegate Alarid until the regularly elected delegate 
from New^ Mexico should take his seat, or until the House of 
Representatives should decree its judgment regarding the 
investigation, then going on, of an infraction of the election 
laws at the election held in October of the previous year, 1824, 

Jose Antonio Chavez Elected Delegate — His Election is Contested. 

At the session of the "Diputaci6n" held on the 21st of 
October, 1826, page 133 of the journal shows that Jose 
Antonio Chavez had been elected delegate to the Cortes; a 
communication from said Chavez was read advising the 
assembly of the date of his departure for Mexico, and bid- 
ding good by to the assembly, but the assembly declined to 
act upon said communication until the contest or dispute 
over his election was settled by the Cortes. The election 
was, as near as I can surmise from the journals of the 
assembly and other official documents, contested by Rafael 
Sarracino, who was successful as will appear further on. 
(This is the logical inference drawn by me The Author.) 

Sarracino is Declared Elected. 

In November, 1830, at a session held on that day a communi- 
cation from Sarracino was read, the journal reads (page 48) 
thus: "A communication from General Rafael Sarracino, 
addressed to H. E. (His Excellency) advising him of his elec- 
tion was received, etc." 



602 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Election of Senators. 

Nothing more is recited by the journals of the assembly 
on the election of delegates and until the session held on 
May 9, 1845. At that session a decree of the secretary of 
state, dated March 9, 1845, was presented. The decree 
authorized the departmental assemblies to elect a senator to 
succeed Senator Sebastian Camacho. The election was had 
by vote (but nothing definite is stated as to who voted) 
Attorney Juan Nepomuceno Urguides was elected 
unanimously. Whether this senator, or his predecessor had 
been residents of New Mexico nothing appears in thejournal 
nor to what legislature the senator was elected, but the 
presumption is reasonable that both were from Chihuahua^ 
and that New Mexico had been annexed to Chihuahua for 
senatorial purposes. 

On the first day of October of the same year, 1845, the jour- 
nal shows that by virtue of Article-54 of "Bases Originales"^ 
(Original Basis) the following named were elected senators, 
but no showing is made how the election was held, for what 
legislature nor the tenure of office. Senators elected — Bishop 
Dn. N. Madrid, Marcelino Castaneda, Bonillo Arcillga, 
Manuel de la Balda, Pedro Jose Escalante, Juan Nepomuceno 
Urquides, Juan Antonio Pescador, Juan Nepomuceno Flores, 
Fernando Ramirez, Ignacio Mijures, Miguel Zubiran, Pedro 
Olivares, Leandro Siqueirosand Antonio Ocha. Each of these 
represented a separate branch of industry, all branches, from 
the mercantile to the agricultural being mentioned. The 
journal, though, is silent as to manner of election and place 
of residence of these men. Certain it is, to all familiar with 
our history, that none of them were residents of New Mexico, 
whence the conclusion that the alleged election of these can- 
didates was a mere ratification of their election in the State 
of Chihuahua. There was another, the last, election held in 
New Mexico on October 7, 1845, for delegate and members of 
the assembly, but further reference to said election is omitted 
because special mention is made thereof in another part of 
this work, a picture of the certificate of said election being: 
published therewith, as the reader will remember. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 603^ 

Father Martinez, Diego Archuleta and Father Juan Felipe Ortiz. 

There is a general belief that both Father Antonio Jose 
Martinez, from Taos, N. M., and Diego Archuleta and Rev. 
Juan Felipe Ortiz, at one time represented New Mexico. I 
have failed in all mj'^ constant investigations to find any 
record of their election, or appointment, as such, but have 
every reason to believe that such was the case. I base my 
judgment first, as to Father Martinez, on the reliable infor- 
mation of the old and highly respected Captain Chacon, of 
Trinidad, Colorado, who in a letter to me of December, 1911, 
affirms that both Martinez and Archuleta had been delegates 
to Mexico, and this belief is supported, as to Father Mar- 
tinez, by at least one historian of repute; Barreiro in his 
"Adiciones" to Pino's "NoticiasHistoricas," at page 26, com- 
menting on the powers of the provincial deputations, cites 
Father Martinez's opinion regarding these deputations, and 
in doing so says: "The Territorial Deputy, Presbyter 
Antonio Jose Martinez, etc., etc." This would seem conclu- 
sive proof at least as to Father Martinez. Now, as to Don 
Diego Archuleta and Rev. Juan Felipe Ortiz, I rely on the 
statement made in a letter written to me by Don Demetrio 
Perez, dated Las Vegas, N. M.; Dec. 26, 1911, in which he 
says (translation): "I know that Don Diego was delegate to 
the Mexican Congress after Vicar Juan Felipe Ortiz's term 
had expired as such delegate, and this must have been from 
1842 to 1843."* 

*NOTE — Don Demetrio is now a very old man; he is the son of 
Governor Albino Perez (assassinated in 1S37, ante) was ten years old 
when he came to New Mexico, in the spring- of the year 1835. He 
heard his father read his first inaugural address (so he states it to me 
in another letter) in Santa F^, when he assumed charge of the govern- 
ment, in the spring of 1835. In his letter, relative to Diego Archuleta 
and Father Ortiz, Don Demetrio says: "Respondiendo a su pregunta 
si s6 6 no, si el finado Padre Martinez y Don Diego .Archuleta, finado 
tambien, representaron a Nuevo Mexico, como Diputados 6 Delegados 
en el Congreso Mexicano. Se que Dn. Diego si f ue, despues que el Sr. 
Vicario Don Juan Felipe Ortiz concluyo su termino como tal diputado, 
y esto tal. vez seria en los aiios de 1842 6 1843. Nunca supe que el Padre 
Martinez fuera Diputado al Congreso Mexicano. — The Author. 



604 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Rev. Lansing Bloom. 

Rev. Lansing Bloom has made a special study of "New 
Mexico Under the Mexican Government" and the reader is 
referred to his work for a further study of that period. 
Mr. Bloom resides in Jemes, N. M. 

Under the American Government. 

Besides what is said in the last phrase of the preceding 
paragraph, from the time of the organization of the civil 
government under the organic law of 1851, the government 
was established in the following manner: 

Courts of Justice. 

The judicial department was administered by four courts 
which are: A justice of the peace which acts in each precinct 
of the different counties for a term of two years, elected by 
the people, A prefect, or judge of probate, also elected by 
the people for two years, in whose charge are the affairs of 
the administration of the estate of deceased persons, the dis- 
position of orphan minors and their property. A district court 
which under the organic act was presided over by one of 
the judges of the supreme court of the Territory, but is now 
presided over by a regularly elected district judge under the 
state constitution, each district consisting of several counties. 
The Territory was divided into seven judicial districts, each 
district having the following counties : First district, Santa Pe, ' 
Rio Arriba, San Juan, Taos and Torrance; second district, 
Bernalillo, McKinley and Sandoval; third district. Dona Ana, 
Grant and Luna; fourth district, San Miguel, Colfax, Mora 
and Union; fifth district, Chaves, Curry, Eddy and Roosevelt; 
sixth district, Otero, Guadalupe, Lincoln and Quay; seventh 
district, Socorro, Sierra and Valencia.* The clerk of the 
probate court in each county acts now, under the state con- 
stitution, besides being also the clerk of the board of county 
commissioners, as clerk for the district court within his 
county. The other officials being one district attorney for 
each judicial district. 

* Under the state constitution New Mexico has been redistricted. 
The number and order of the new judicial districts is mentioned and 
given in another part of this worlc. — The Author. 



I 



o 

o 

p 

3 




■606 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Courts. 

The last, oi' highest court of justice is the supreme court 
which is now composed of three judges elected by the people. 
Under the territorial form of government it was composed of 
the judges of the respective judicial districts, one of them was 
appointed by the president as chief justice and the others as 
associate justices. 

Sheriffs and Constables. 

A sheriff is elected in each county at the same time the 
•other county officials are "elected for a term of four years. In 
like manner are constables elected in each precinct of every 
county, and likewise a justice of the peace is elected in each 
precinct. The duties of these officials are prescribed and 
<iefined by law. 

Political Department — Counties. 

New Mexico is now divided into 26 counties, namely: Ber- 
nalillo, organized January 6, 1852, with its county seat at the 
city of Albuquerque; Chaves, organized February, 1867, 
county seat, Roswell; Colfax, organized January 25th, 1869, 
county seat, Raton; Curry, organized February 25th, 1909, 
county seat, Clovis; Dona Ana, organized February, 1857, 
county seat. Las Cruces; Eddy, organiz'^d February 25th, 
1887, county seat, Carlsbad; Grant, organized January 30th, 
1868, county seat. Silver City; Guadalupe, organized February 
23, 1905, county seat, Santa Rosa; Lincoln, organized 
February 13, 1880, county seat, Lincoln: Luna, organized 
March 16, 1901, county seat, Deming; McKinley, organized 
February 23, 1899, county seat, Gallup: Mora, organized 
January 6, 1852, councy seat. Mora: Otero, organized January 
30, 1899, county seat, Alaiilogordo: Quay, organized February 
2*^, 1903, county seat, Tucumcari; Rio Arriba, organized 
January 6, 1852, county seat, first. Plaza del Alcalde, acutally, 
Tierra Amarilla; Roosevelt, organized February 28th, 1903, 
county seat, Portales; Sandoval, organized March 10, 1903, 
county seat, Bernalillo: San Juan, organized February 24) 
1887, county seat, Aztec; San Miguel, organized January 6, 
1852, county seat, Las Vegas; Santa Fe, organized January 6, 
1852, county seat, Santa Fe; Sierra, organized April 3, 1884, 



~s. 



9 

3 
o 

IK) 




608 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

county seat, Hillsboro; Socorro, organized January 6, 1852, 
county seat, Socorro; Taos, organized January 6, 1852, county 
seat, Taos; Torrance, organized March 16, 1903, county seat, 
Estancia; Union, organized February 28, 1895, county seat, 
Clayton; Valencia, organized January 6, 1852, county seat, Los 
Lunas. Each one of these counties is governed by a board of 
commissioners elected by the electors (voters) of each county. 

Legislative and Executive Departments. 

The laws of New Mexico have been, until this date, enacted 
by a legislature which meets every two years, and which, in 
the first years of the American government, met once every 
year. It was composed of 24 members of the house and 12 
senators or members of the legislative council, elected by 
the voters of the Territory. The acts of said legislature did 
not become laws until they received the sanction of the gov- 
ernor, subject also to the approval of congress. Congress 
authorized from the national treasury the per diem and 
mileage paid to its members. Congress passed in the year 
of 1911, an act enabling New Mexico to erect itself into a 
state, the legislature, which met in Santa Fe on the 11th of 
March, 1912, was the first State Legislature. The legislatures 
during the last sixty years of the territorial government 
numbered 38. 

The executive government is in the hands of the governor 
and the secretary of the state who are under the State Con- 
stitution elected by the people (see state election post). Gov- 
ernor William J. Mills and Secretary Nathan Jaffa were the 
last officials under the territorial law and Mr. William C. 
McDonald the first State Governor, and Mr. Ezequiel C. de 
Baca the first Lieutenant Governor, both Democrats, elected 
at the first state election, held on the 7th day of November, 
1911, (post) over their opponents, H. O. Bursum and 
Malaquias Martinez, Republicans. 

List of Governors Under Military Appointment. 

Charles Bent, (appointed by General Kearny) 1846--17; 
Donaciano Vigil, (appointed by Col. Price) 1847-48; J. M. 
Washington, commander of the department, 1848-49; John 
Munroe, commandant of the department, 1849-51. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 609 

Under the Organic Law. 

James S. Calhoun, 1851-52; John Greiner, (secretary of the 
territory ad interim) 1852; WilUam Carr Lane, 1852-53; Davis 
Meriwether, 1853-57; Abraham Rencher, 1857-61; Henry 
Connelly, 1861-66; Robert B. Mitchell, 1866-69; William A. 
Pile, 1869-71; Marsch Giddings, 1871-75; Wilham G. Ritch, 
(secretary of government ad interim) 1875; Samuel B. Axtell, 
1875-78; Lew Wallace, 1878-81; Lionel A. Sheldon, 1881-85; 
Edmund G. Ross, 1885-89; L. Bradford Prince, 1889 93; 
WiUiam T. Thornton, 1893-97; Miguel A. Otero, Jr., 1897-1906; 
Herbert J. Hagerman, 1906-07; James W. Raynolds, (secre- 
tary of government ad interim) 1907; George Curry, 1907- 
10; W. J. Mills, 1910-11. 

Secretaries of the Territory. 

Donaciano Vigil, 1846-51; Hugh H. Smith, 1851; Wilham S. 
Allen, 1851-52; John Greiner, 1852-53; William S. Messervy, 
1853-54; W. H. H. Davis, 1854-57; A. M. Jackson, 1857-61; 
Miguel A. Otero, Sr., 1861; James H. Holmes, 1861-62; W. F. 
M. Arny, 1862-67; H. H. Heath, 1867-70; Henry Wetter, 
1870-72; F. W. Arny, 1872-73; Wm. G. Ritch, 1873-84: Samuel 
A. Losh, 1884-85; Geo. W. Lane, 1885-89; B. M. Thomas, 
1889-92; L. Alexander, 1892-93; Lorin Miller, 1893-97; Geo. H. 
Wallace, 1897-1901; Jas. W. Raynolds, 1901-07; Nathan Jaffa, 
1907-12, last under the territorial government; Antonio J. 
Lucero, first secretary of state, elected November 7, 1911, 
entered into the performance of his official duties in Janu- 
ary, 1912, for five years. 

Chief Justices of the Supreme Court — Appointed- 

Joab B. Houghton, 1846 (appointed by General Kearny); 
Grafton Baker, 1851; J. J. Davenport, 1858; Kirby Benedict, 
1858; John P. Slough, 1866; John S. Watts, 1868; Joseph G. 
Palen, 1868; Henry L. Waldo, 1876; Chas. McCandless, 1878; 
L. Bradford Prince, 1879; Samuel B. Axtell, 1882; Wm. Vin- 
cent, 1885; Ehsha V. Long, 1885; Jas. O'Brien, 1889; Thos. J. 
Smith, 1893; Wm. J. Mihs, 1898; W. H. Pope, 1910-1911, last 
under territorial government; Clarence J. Roberts first 
State Chief Justice (who was elected November 7, 1911, at 



610 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

fnrst State election with Frank W. Parker and Richard H. 
Hanna as judges of the first State Supreme Court) selected 
by his associates as Chief Justice, January 11, 1912, (see 
"organization of the first State Supreme Court.'" Post). 

Territorial Delegates to Congress. 

Messervy and Weightman already mentioned, Jose Manuel 
Gallegos, 1853-55; Miguel A. Otero, Sr., 1856-61; John L. 
Watts, 1861-63; Francisco Perea, 1863-65; J. Franco Chavez, 
1865-69; Chas. P. Clever, 1869-71; J. Franco Chavez, 1871, 
(contested Clever's election and v^as successful); Jose Manuel 
Gallegos, 1871-73; Stephen B Elkins, 1873-77; Trinidad Ro- 
mero, 1877-79; Mariano S. Otero, 1879-81; TranquiHno Luna, 
1881-83; F. A. Manzanares, 1883-85; Antonio Joseph, 1885-95; 
Thomas B. Catron, 1895-97; H. B. Fergusson 1897-99; Pedro 
Perea, 1899-01; Bernard S. Rodey, 1901-05: William H. An- 
drews, 1905-11, last delegate. 

Territorial Legislatures and Their Presiding Officers. 

1847, (under military government) -A.ntonio Sandoval, Pres- 
ident of the Senate; William S. Angey, Speaker of the House. 

1851, (under civil government) Antonio .]os6 Martinez, Pres- 
ident of the Senate; Theodore D. Wheaton, Speaker of the 
House. 

1853, James H. Quinn, President of the Senate; Theodore 
D. Wheaton, Speaker of the House. 

1855, Jose Antonio Baca y Pino, President of the Senate; 
Facundo Pino, Speaker of the House. 

1855, (second session) Facundo Pino, President of the Sen- 
ate; Celedonio Valdez, Speaker of the House. 

1856, Facundo Pino, President of the Senate; Jos6 Serafin 
Ramirez, Speaker of the House. 

1857, Donaciano Vigil, President of the Senate; Merrill 
Ashrust, Speaker of the House. 

1858, Lafayette Head, President of the Senate; Jose G 
Gallegos, Speaker of the House. 

1859, Jos6 G. Gallegos, President of the Senate; Levi 
Keithly, Speaker of the house, part of the session, and Celso 
C. Medina, the last part of the session. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 611 

1860, Jose G. Gallegos, President of the Senate; Jos^ Man- 
uel Gallegos, Speaker of the House. 

1861, Pacundo Pino, President of the Senate; Jose Manuel 
Gallegos, Speali:er of the House. 

1862, Pacundo Pino, President of the Senate; Jose Manuel 
Gallegos, Speaker of the House. 

1863, Diego Archuleta, President of the Senate; Vicente 
Garcia, Speaker of the House. 

1864, Diego Archuleta, President of the Senate; Pedro Val- 
dez, Speaker of the House. 

1865, Miguel E. Pino, President of the Senate; Samuel 
Ellison, Speaker of the House. 

1866, Miguel E. Pino, President of the Senate; R. M. 
Stephens, Speaker of the House. 

1867, Anastacio Sandoval, President of the Senate; Jose 
Manuel Gallegos, Speaker of the House. 

1868, Severo Baca, President of the Senate; R. M, 
Stephens, Speaker of the House. 

1869, Nicolas Pino, President of the Senate; Gregorio N. 
Otero, Speaker of the House. 

1871, Severo Baca, President of the Senate; Milnor 
Rudulpb, Speaker of the House, part of session, Gregorio N. 
Otero the other part. 

1878, Pedro Sanchez, President of the Senate; Gregorio N. 
Otero, Speaker of the House. 

1875, Pedro Sanchez, President of the Senate; Roman Baca, 
Speaker of the House. 

1878, Santiago Baca, President of the Senate; Juan B. 
Patron, Speaker of the House. 

1880, J. Prancisco Chavez, President of the Senate; Rafael 
Romero, Speaker of the House. 

1882, Severo Baca, President of the Senate; Pedro Sanchez, 
Speaker of the House. 

188i, Jose Armijo y Vigil, President of the Senate; Amado 
Chavez^ Speaker of the House. 

1886, J. Prancisco Chavez, President of the Senate; Manuel 
C. de Baca, Speaker of the House. 

1888, J. Prancisco Chavez, President of the Senate; Albert 
J. Pountain, Speaker of the House. 



612 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

1890, J. Francisco Chavez, President of the Senate; William 
Burns, Speaker of the House. 

1892, J. Francisco Chavez, President of the Senate; A. L. 
Branch, Speaker of the House. 

1894, George Curry, President of the Senate; William 
Dame, Speaker of the House. 

1897, Antonio Joseph, President of the Senate; W. H. H. 
Llewellyn, Speaker of the House. 

1899, J. Francisco Chavez, President of the Senate; Max- 
imiliano Luna, Speaker of the House. 

1901, J. Francisco Chavez, President of the Senate; Ben- 
jamin M. Read (author of this work). Speaker of the House. 

1903, J. Francisco Chavez, President of the Senate; Nestor 
Montoya, Speaker of the House. 

1905, John S. Clark, President of the Senate; Carl A. Dahes, 
Speaker of the House. 

1907, Charles A. Spiess, President of the Senate; Roman 
L. Baca, Speaker of the House. 

1909, Charles A. Spiess, President of the Senate, Epime- 
nio Miera, Speaker of the House. 

This was the last legislature under the Territorial gov- 
ernment. 

Bar Association. 

The Bar of New Mexico, has over 150 attorneys. In the 
year 1887, on the 19th of July, the Bar Association of New 
Mexico was organized with the following socii: H. L. Waldo,. 
W. C. Hazeldine, W. B. Childers, Wm. Breeden, E. L. 
Bartlett, E. C. Wade, F. Downs, W. H. Whiteman, L. B. 
Prince, Max Frost, F. W. Clancy, J. P. Victory, E A. Fiske, 
W. M. Berger, B. M. Read (the author of this work), W. H. 
Patterson, C. H. Gildersleeve, Joseph Bell and Neil Field — 
its presidents being: H. L. Waldo, P. W. Clancy, E. L. 
Bartlett, Richard H. Hanna, Judge Vincent, Simon B. New- 
comb, Frank Springer, Frank W. Clancy, William C. 
Hazeldine, A. B. Elliott, L. A. Jones, James G. Fitch, Thomas- 

B. Catron, N. B. Field, A. B. Fall, R. E. Twitchell, E. A. 
Fiske, A. B. Freeman, W. B. Childers, A. H. Harllee, William 

C. Rigley, G. A. Richardson, A. B. Renehan, A. B. McMillan, 
in 1910. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 613 

Celebration of Marshall's Anniversary. 

On February 4th, 1901, the supreme court of the Territory 
adopted a resolution in which the presiding officers of the 
legislature which was then in session, Messrs. J. Francisco 
Chavez, President of the Senate, and Benjamin M. Read, 
Speaker of the House, were requested the use of the legisla- 
tive halls, asking, at the same time, said officers to appoint, 
in their respective bodies, an orator to deliver an address on 
the night of that day, commemorative of the chief justice of 
the supreme court. The invitation was accepted, the Senate 
appointing its president, J. Francisco Chavez, and the House 
its speaker, Benjamin M. Read. On the night of that day the 
exercises were had in the Capitol building, in the hall of 
representatives, in which the appropriate addresses for the 
occasion were delivered by Chief Justice William J. Mills, 
Mr. Frank Springer, member of the senate, Don Francisco 
Chavez, president of the same body, and Benjamin M. Read, 
speaker of the house, and Mr. E. A. fiske. 

Statehood Question — History of the Struggle — First and Second State- 
hood Conventions. 

The war with Mexico closed, as we have already seen, with 
the treaty of peace made at the City of Guadalupe Hidalgo, 
on the 2nd of February, 1848. That same year, in the month 
of October, the first conventiou^met in Santa Fe on the tenth 
of the same month, and the people declared through their 
representatives in that convention, (ante), in favor of state- 
hood. That was the first step taken. The next step was 
taken, as it has been said in another part of this work, in 
June, 1850, wben the second constitutional convention met in 
Santa F6, in which the officers of state were elected (ante). 
The steps taken by the people to secure statehood were 
prompted first, by the desire of exercising the full rights of 
citizenship; secondly, by the promise made them by General 
Kearny, when he took possession of New Mexico in 1846, 
(ante) and, finally, by article 9th of the treaty of peace already 
mentioned, with the Mexican Republic, which article reads 
as follows: . , 

"The Mexicans in the aforesaid Territories, w^ho shall not 



614 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

retain the character of citizens of the Mexican Republic, as 
stipulated in the foregoing article, shall be incorporated in 
the Union of the United States, and shall be admitted in 
opportune time (at the discretion of the Congress of the 
United States) to the enjoyment of all the rights of citizens 
of the United States, in accordance with the principles of 
the constitution, and, in the meanwhile, they shall be pro- 
tected in the enjoyment of their liberty and property, and 
secured in the free exercise of their religion without any 
restriction." 

From the year 1850 to the year of 1911, the struggle to 
obtain the fultiUment of that promise was continuous, and, it 
may be said, almost desperate. Almost all the Presidents of 
the United States, from that epoch down, had recommended 
the fulfillment of that article of the treaty with Mexico. The 
two political parties, the Democratic and the Republican, 
promised very frequently the approval of an enabling act, 
but their declarations were mere empty promises. The New 
Mexico legislature began to petition Congress on the subject 
ever since 1847. In 1870 the legislature of the Territory 
decreed that a constitution should be submitted to the vote 
of the people for their adoption, but nothing was done. In 
1872, the legislature again provided that the constitution that 
had been prepared in 1870, should be re-submitted to the 
people, but the time or limit which the law fixed for the 
counting of the votes having expired, the election was of no 
effect and the movement failed once more by effect of the law. 

Elkin's Mistake. 

In the year 1875, Mr. Stephen B. Elkins (afterwards Sen- 
ator in the National Congress from the State of West 
Virginia) was delegate from New Mexico in Congress, man- 
aged to obtain an enabling act, which, after being already 
certain of passage by both legislative bodies, failed through 
an indiscretion of Mr. Elkins. At the critical moment, the 
passage of a law, which affected the interests of the southern 
states was being acted on, and as the members of Congress 
from that section of the Union favored the admission of New 
Mexico, Mr. Elkins inadvertently made some remarks which 
wounded the feelings of the members of the southern states, 



I 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 615 

they, said members, next casting their votes against the 
enabhng act. 

In 1888, another enabhng act was introduced by Repre- 
sentative Wilham M. Springer, of Illinois, vt'ith the same 
result as Mr. Elkins' act. 

Third Statehood Convention, 1889. 

In 1889, the New Mexico Legislature authorized the re- 
assembling of another constitutional convention at Santa Fe; 
the election for delegates to said convention was held; the 
delegates assembled in Santa Fe, remaining in session from 
September 3 to September 21. A constitution prepared by 
said convention was adopted by the majority of the people 
but Congress refused to approve it. 

Other delegates, among them, Don Antonio Joseph, T. B. 
Catron, H. B. Fergusson, Tranquilino Lunaand Pedro Perea, 
tried during their respective terms in Congress, to obtain 
the adoption of a constitution, all getting the same result — a 
huge failure. 



•o' 



President Taft Succeeds in Having Congress Approve an Enabling 
Act, 1910. 

Finally, in the year 1910, New Mexico obtained justice at 
the hands of the American government. Owing to the con- 
tinuous and very valuable services of New Mexico's Delegate 
in Congress, William H. Andrews, aided by the foremost men 
in the Territory of both political parties, New Mexico man- 
aged to keep up the agitation in favor of statehood for New 
Mexico and Arizona, until President Taft, in compliance with 
the promise previously made by the Republican party in its 
national convention, urged, recommended and demanded 
from Congress the adoption of an enabling act, which was 
approved June 20, of that year. It is, then, only just, to 
recognize the debt New Mexico owes to Mr. W. H. Taft, the 
President, for his valuable and timely co-operation. In virtue 
of that law, the governor of New Mexico, issued on the 29th 
day of June, 1910, his proclamation for an election of 100 
delegates to the constitutional convention, in accordance with 
an apportionment made by the governor, the chief justice and 



616 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

the secretary of the Territory on the 28th of the month of 
June. Said election was to be held on the 6th of September, 
1910. 

First Statehood Election — Election of Delegates. 

The election was held on Tuesday, September 6, 1910, in 
accordance with the proclamation, and the following dele- 
gates were elected: 

Francis E. Wood, Herbert F. Raynolds, Nestor Montoya, 
E. S. Stover, A. A. Sedillo,M. L. Stern, Anastacio Gutierrez, 
H. B. Fergusson, Green B. Patterson, G. A. Richardson, 
John I. Hinkle, Emmett Patten, C. J. Roberts, Norman Bart- 
lett, Geo. Brown, T, H. O'Brien, Chas. Springer, Francisco 
Gauna, T. J. Mabry, J. W. Childers, Frank W. Parker, Isi- 
doro Armijo, W. E. Garrison, G. E. Miller, M. P. Skeen, C.R. 
Brice, W. D. Murray, A. H. Harllee, J. B. Gilchrist, W. B. 
Walton, J. G. Clancy, Raymundo Harrison, Salome Martinez, 
Tranquilino Labadie, John Ca"pping, J. J. Aragon, A. H. 
Hudspeth, J. N. Upton, Gregory Page, Juan Navarro, Daniel 
Cassidy, Anastacio Medina, Emanuel Lucero, Fred S. Brown, 
A. B. Fall, J. A. Lawson, Geo. E. Moffett, Reed Holloman, 
Chas. Kohn, C. F. Saxon, J. L. House, C. C. Davidson, T. D. 
Burns, V. Jaramillo, J. A. Lucero, PerfectoEsquivel, Samuel 
Eldodt, J. H. Crist, W. E. Lindsey, James Hall, Alejandro 
Sandoval, Epimenio Miera, R. W. Heflin, M. D. Taylor, C. 
M. Crampton, J. M. Cunningham, Harry W. Kelly, S. B, 
Davis, A. Roybal, Luciano Maes, C. A. Spiess, E. Romero, 
Margarito Romero, N. Segura, T. B. Catron, J. D. Sena, G. 
W. Prichard, B. F. Pankey, Victor Ortega, F. H. Winston, E. 
D. Titman, A. Abeytia, P. Romero, H. O. Bursum, H. M. 
Dougherty, J. G. Fitch, N. McKean, Malaquias Martinez, S. 
Hartt, O. G. Martinez, W. Mcintosh, A. B. McDonald, Acasio 
Gallegos, E. Gallegos, C. Vigil, P. C. Fields, G. W. Baker, 
Solomon Luna, J. Becker, Silvestre Mirabal. 

Fourth and Last Convention. 

The convention met in Santa Fe on the 3rd day of October, 
1910, presided over by C. A. Spiess, with Geo. W. Armijo, 
secretary, and Rev. Julius Hartman as chaplain and adopted 
a republican constitution, in its form of goverment. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 617 

Election on the Adoption or Rejection — Result of the Vote — Official 
Canvass — Constitution Adopted — Governor Mills Coes to Wash- 
ington. 

On January 21, 1911, the constitution was submitted to the 
vote of the people, and was approved by a large majority of 
votes. 

The official returns of the vote, for and against the consti- 
tution in the election of January 21, 1911, were canvassed by 
Governor Mills, Secretary Jaffa, and Chief Justice Pope, 
and showed that the total vote was 45,141, of which 31,742 
were cast for the constitution and 13,399 against it, the total 
majority for the constitution being 18,433. The counties 
of Lincoln, Roosevelt, San Jijan and Sierra gave small 
majorities against the constitution, the total majority in the 
four counties against it being 483. 

The canvass of the vote commenced at 10 o'clock in the 
morning in the office of the secretary, and closed a little 
afternoon-time. All the poll-books were examined, and the 
totals were added by means of an adding machine. Gov- 
ernor Mills received a certified copy of the returns by 
counties and precincts, and with them a copy of the consti- 
tution, in order to deliver them to President Taft. The 
governor started on Monday, February 6th, for Washington 
where he arrived Thursda3^ February 9, 1911, and delivered 
the said certified copy of the constitution to the Presiden t the 
same day. 

President Taft approved the constitution, after having 
heard the protests against same presented by the Prohibi- 
tionists, on February 24, 1911, and on the same day sent the 
following message to congress: 

President s Message. 

"To the senate and house of representatives: 
"The act which gave the people of New Mexico authority 
to write a constitution and organize a state government so 
that its inhabitants might be admitted to the union, with 
rights and privileges equal to those granted to the original 
states, approved June 20, 1910, provides that after the con- 
stitution has been approved, in accordance with the provi- 
sions expressed in that act, the same be submitted to the 



618 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

President and Congress of the United States, by a certified 
copy of same, for the President and Congress to approve, or 
if the President approves and Congress does not disapprove 
it during the next regular session of that body, that, in such 
event the President shall give the governor certified infor- 
mation of the result, and that he, the governor shall then 
publish his proclamation for the election of officers of state 
and county, etc. 

"The constitution has been presented to me drawn in 
accordance with the act of Congress, which has been approved 
by the electors of New Mexico, and a certified copy of same 
has been also presented to Congress, that it may be 
approved in conformity v^^ith what the act provides. 

"As the 'Eaabling Act' expressly requires the action of the 
President, I herewith transmit to you a copy of the constitu- 
tion, which has been already presented to Congress, as I have 
been informed, in accordance with the provisions of the act, 
which has received my formal approval. 

Wm. H. Tapt. 

From the White House, February 24, 1911." 

Congress Adjourns Without Approving the Constitution. 

In the last momemts of the regular session of the sixty- 
first congress, the 4th of March, 1911, the senate took in 
consideration the approval of the resolution which the day 
before had been approved by the house, whereby the consti- 
tution of New Mexico had been declared approved. Senator 
Owen, of Oklahoma, presented an amendment to the reso- 
lution which included the constitution of Arizona. Following 
a very warm discussion the vote was taken, with a result of 
45 votes against, and 39 votes in favor of approving the 
amendment. The effect of the disapproval of the amend- 
ment was to delay the admission of New Mexico to the Union. 
The constitution having been approved by the President, re- 
mained in force, and it but needed the approval or disap- 
proval by the next Congress. 

Again a Ray of Hope Appears— The Flood Resolution. 

Congress met in special session in April, 1911, and at once 
the tactics were resumed looking for the success of New Mex- 



o 
o 



> 

TO 

■-8 

n 

>-» 

01 







620 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

ico's admission, but on account of the discord among some 
of the political coxcombs of the Territory, a most bitter tight 
was inaugurated, which resulted in the adoption of amend- 
ments by the house of representatives with which the senate 
did not agree. From that month, {April, 1911), the fight con- 
tinued to the month of July, (1911), when the house by a very 
large majority approved a resolution drawn by Congressman 
Flood, of Virginia, whereby the admission of New Mexico and 
Arizona was authorized on condition that New Mexico in its 
election of state officers should submit to the people the 
proposition that the constitution might be amended with 
less difficulty than was provided in the original constitution. 
That resolution was rejected by the senate, and another one 
offered by Senator Nelson as a substitute. 

The Nelson Resolution. 

The Nelson resolution authorized the admission of New 
Mexico unconditionally ratifying the expression of approval 
by the 18,000 votes majority given in the Territory in favor 
of the constitution. It also authorized the admission of 
Arizona, eliminating from its constitution the clause in 
reference to the recall. The Nelson resolution kindled the 
political flame, and embittered the dispositions of the legis- 
lators to such a pitch that for several days the question was 
warmly debated, the question reaching its climax on August 
10, by the rejection of the Nelson resolution, and the appro- 
val of the Flood resolution with slight amendments. The 
House concurred the next day (August 11) with the action 
of the senate. The presiding officers of the house and 
senate then signed the resolution and the same was at once 
forwarded to President Taft for his approval or disapproval. 

Taft Disapproves the Resolution. 

On August 15th, Taft returned the resolution to congress 
accompanied by a message in which he gave his reasons for 
not approving it, namely: 

That because of the clause in reference to the recall in the 
constitution of Arizona he refused to approve the resolution; 
and that, with regard to New Mexico, he considered a consti- 
tution approved by a majority of over 18,000 votes as one of 



<»« 




622 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

the best constitutions of the nation, and that he had already 
previously approved it with great pleasure, but that, inas- 
much as the admission of New Mexico was now included in 
the Flood resolution, he could not approve it. 

New Attempt— The Smith Resolution. 

On the same day (August 15) Senator Smith presented 
another resolution, more or less identical with the Nelson 
resolution for the admission of both territories. The result 
was the appointment of a committee of both bodies (August 
16) with the object of expunging from the Flood resolution 
the matter that was repugnant to the recalcitrants of both 
parties and to President Taft. Said committee met on the 
17th, and, following a long and animated discussion, it 
approved the proposition of eliminating entirely the alluded 
clause from Arizona's constitution, and in leaving the proviso 
which authorized a new vote in New Mexico as to whether or 
not, our constitution should be so amended as to be more 
easily altered, changed or modified. The committee sent its 
report of what had been agreed to, to the senate on the same 
day; the report was received, and submitted to the considera- 
tion of the senate the next day, Friday the 18th. On that day 
the senate approved the resolution by a vote of 58 to 8, and 
was sent to the house on the same day. 

The House Approves th^ Resolution. 

On Saturday, August 19th, in a debate, full to overflowing 
with criminations and recriminations, the house unanimously 
approved the resolution. Without loss of time it was signed 
by the presiding officers of both bodies, and was then for- 
warded to President Taft for his approval. 

August 21, 1911— A Glorious Day. 

On Monday, August 21, A. D. 1911, at three o'clock p. m., 
President Taft affixed his signature to the resolution giving 
us thereby our complete political autonomy, and authorizing 
the appearance of ou r star in the beautiful and glorious Amer- 
ican banner, closing thus the grand tight which for sixty-three 
consecutive years our patriotic and suffering people had sus- 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 623 

tained, while the American government also was finally 
fulfilling the solemn obligation which it had imposed upon 
itself by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The 21st day of 
August, therefore, shall shine in the annals of our history 
with the same effulgence that issues, from the star, in our 
flag, which represents our political entity in the American 
federation. 

Official Notification. 

On the 26th of August, (1911) Governor Mills received 
semi-official advices from President Taft to the effect that the 
enabling act was in force, and ordering him to issue a pro- 
clamation for the election of State officers. On the same 
day Governor Mills received the following telegram from the 
President. 

President Taft s Message ol Good Wishes. 

"White House, Washington, D. C, August 21. 
"My Dear Governor Mills, — I acknowledge receipt of your 
telegram of this morning, and I feelingly thank you for your 
kindly expression, regarding my approval of the statehood 
bill as revised. 

"I felt a great pleasure in accelerating, with my signature, 
the admission to the federation, and cherish the best wishes 
for the wellfare and prosperity of the people of New Mexico, 
which very soon will be a state. 

"With the kindest regards I am sincerely yours, 

William H. Taft. 
"Hon. William J. Mills, Governor of New Mexico, Santa 
Fe, New Mexico." 

The Pen Wherewith the Act Was Signed. 

On the same day, August 27, ex-Governor Prince received 
a letter from Delegate W. H. Andrews, dated at Washington, 
August 22nd, 1911, (See Santa Pe New Mexican correspond- 
ing to August 25th, 1911), advising him that, by the mail of 
that same date, he had sent to Mr. Princ^e the pen which the 
President had used to sign the enabling act. The same was 
sent to Mr. Prince for its preservation in the New Mexico 
Historical Society. 



624 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Proclamation for the First State Election. 

On August 29th, 1911, by communication signed by Presi- 
dent Taft, the governor of New Mexico was officially advised 
of the passage of the resolution for the admission of New 
"Mexico into the American Federation, and on the 30th of the 
same month. Governor Mills issued his proclamation for the 
election of two representatives to the Federal congress, and 
of the state and county officers, etc., in accordance with the 
constitution of New Mexico. The proclamation fixed the 7th 
day of November, 1911, for said election, the electors were 
also to vote for, or against the provision as to whether or not 
the state constitution may be amended with less difficulty, 
as it is provided for, in the resolution of Congress. 

Political Conventions — Nominations of State Officers. 

So soon as the proclamation was published the political 
parties made the necessary preparations for the meeting of 
their conventions to nominate the congressmen and State 
officials. After the official calls, the Republicans met in con- 
vention in Las Vegas and the Democrats in Santa Fe in the 
latter part of September and the earlier part of October, 
1911, respectively, the candidates nominated being as follows : 

By the Republican Party. 

For Governor — Holm O. Bursum, of Socorro county. 

For Lieutenant Governor — Malaquias Martinez, Taos 
county. 

For Secretary of State — Secundino Romero, San Miguel 
county. 

For Auditor- W. D. Sargent, Rio Arriba county. 

For Treasurer — Sylvestre Mirabal, Valencia county. 

For Attorney General— Frank W. Clancy, Bernalillo 
county. 

For Superintendent of Public Instruction— Andrew B. 
Stroup, Bernalillo'|county. 

For Commissioner of Public Lands — Robert P. Ervien,. 
Union county. 

For Supreme Court Judges — Frank W. Parker, Dofia Ana. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 625 

county; C. J. Roberts, Colfax county; Edward R. Wright, 
Otero county. 

For Corporation Commissioners — George W. Armijo, 
Santa Fe county; Hugh Williams, Luna county; M. S. Groves, 
Eddy county. 

For Congress — George Curry, Lincoln county; Elfego 
Baca, Bernalillo county. 

By the Democratic Party. 

For Governor — William C. McDonald, Lincoln county. 

For Lieutenant Governor— E. C. De Baca, San Miguel 
county. 

For Secretary of State — Antonio J. Lucero, San Miguel 
county. 

For State Auditor — Frank A. Manzanares, Guadalupe 
county.* 

For State Treasurer — O. N. Marron, of Bernalillo county. 

For State Superintendent of Schools — Alvan N. White, 
Grant county. 

For Attorney General — W. R. McGill, Roosevelt county. 

For Commissioner of Public Lands— John L. Emerson, 
Eddy county. 

For .Justices of the Supreme Court — Summers Burkhart, 
Bernalillo county; W. A. Dunn, Chaves county; Richard H. 
Hanna, Santa Fe county. 

For Corporation Commissioners — O.L.Owen, Curry county; 
Seferino Martinez, Colfax county; George H. Van Stone, 
Torrance county. 

For Congress — H. B. Fergusson, Bernalillo county; Paz 
Valverde, Union county. 

Gampa,ign of Slander. 

The nomination of candidates for congress and State of- 
fices thus made, the campaign was formally launched, and to 
say that it was warm and bitter would be a moderate charac- 
terization. It was a campaign where slander, vilification and 
personalities were resorted to the extent that in the history 
of disreputable political contests in the United States its 

*Manzanares resigned before election day and Francisco Delgado. 
of Santa F^, was put on the ticket in his place.— Thf, Author. 



626 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

equal cannot be named, for not even the famous and degrading 
Blaine-Cleveland campaign of 1884 can come near it. The 
election was held on November 7, 1911, as provided for it in 
the proclamation. 

Board of Canvassers. 

The 27th day of November (1911) was set for the canvassing 
of the vote. The canvassing board, which consisted of Gov- 
ernor Mills, Chief Justice Pope and Secretary Jaffa met in 
the Capitol building, in the City of Santa Fe, on that day, 
and began the official counting of the vote. The counting 
lasted from day to day until the 16th day of December, 1911, 
and was conducted publicly and in the presence of the 
candidates and attorneys representing both political parties. 

The 19th day of December, 1911, was setas argument day; 
on that day the arguments by the attorneys representing 
both political parties, respectively, began regarding the 
objections interposed and motions made by them while the 
vote was being canvassed. These objections and motions 
were interposed and made for the purpose of having the board 
reject, or throw out, some precints in some cases and in 
others to allow certain candidates a certain number of votes 
which the judges of election had refused to count in their 
favor on the ground that the name of the candidates so 
counted out was not the name voted for. This character 
of irregularities were somewhat numerous. In other in- 
stances the result of the election had been changed by the 
judges of election, the precinct of Carthage, Socorro county, 
being one where the judges of election, John B. McKinley, 
R. H. Mclntire and Luis Silva, and their clerks. Dr. William 
Hart and John Webb, admitted to the board (vide Santa F^ 
New Mexican of December 22, 1911) that "the vote had been 
changed so that one of the candidates lost six votes and that 
others increased in different cases from three to six over the 
correct returns." Similar irregularities were argued and 
passed upon by the board, the board holding sessions each 
day for the hearing of these arguments. In precinct No. 1 
(Clayton) of Union county, the board found that the poll books 
had not been certified to by the judges of election, and the 
said judges with their clerks were subpoenaed by the 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 627 

board in order to have them sign the said poll books. They 
appeared before the board but only one of the judges and one 
of the clerks showed their willingness to sign whilst the 
other two judges and the other clerk declined to do so giving 
in writing, their reasons, whereupon the board ordered the 
matter referred to the district court having competent 
jurisdiction over that county. The opinion of the board 
was expressed by Chief Justice W. H. Pope on the day 
mentioned. 

Referred to the Courts — Judge McFie Declines to Act. 

The matter of the Clayton precinct election imbroglio was 
finally, by agreement of all parties concerned, referred to 
John R. McFie, judge of the first judicial district court, for 
final judicial adjudication, but Judge McFie on the 27th day 
of December, (1911), "for reasons personal to himself," and 
also because he believed he had no jurisdiction, declined to 
take cognizance of the matter. The question of jurisdiction 
having thus come into the case both sides agreed that Judge 
C. J. Roberts, judge of the fourth judicial district, wherein 
lies Clayton, was the only judge empowered to pass upon the 
question. Judge Roberts, who was then in Trinidad, Colo- 
rado, was, therefore, immediately wired to come to Santa F^, 
which he did, arriving the next day, (December 28), and he 
at once heard the case and decided "that the judges and the 
clerks shall sign the returns." 

Canvassing Board Meets — Certificates Issued — Engrossed Certificates 
of Result of Election Sent to the President of the United States by 
the Congressmen Elect. 

December 29, 1911, at two o'clock the oflicial canvassing 
board met at the Capitol. Governor Mills and Territorial 
Secretary Jaifa, present; Chief Justice W. H. Pope absent. 
The decision of Judge C. J. Roberts in the Clayton dispute 
was formerly presented and election Judge Eaton signed for 
himself and the other election judge and clerk w^ho were 
absent. This precinct was then included and the count 
closed. 

Before adjourning the board issued certificates of election 
to the successful candidates and placed the certificate of the 



628 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

result of the election in the hands of Congressmen Fergusson 
and Curry who left for Washington on the evening of Decem- 
ber 30, (1911) to deliver the same to President Taft. 

The total vote cast for state officers is as follows: 

For Governor, W. C. McDonald, Democrat, 31,086; H. O. 
Bursum, Republican, 28,019: McDonald's plurality 3,017, 

For Congressmen, George Curry, Republican, 30,162; H. 
B. Fergusson, Democrat, 29,999; Elfego Baca, Republican, 
28,836: Paz Valverde, Democrat, 28,353; Curry's plurahty 
1809; Fergusson's plurality 1163. 

For Lieutenant Governor, Malaquias Martinez, Republican, 
28,906: E. C. de Baca, Democrat, 29,642; de Baca's plurahty 
1736. 

For Secretary of State, Secundino Romero, Republican, 
28,392; Antonio Lucero, Democrat, 29,692; Lucero's plurality 
760. 

For State Auditor, William G. Sargent, Republican, 29,574; 
Francisco Delgado, Democrat, 29,133; Sargent's pluralty 441 

For State Treasurer, Silvestre Mirabal, Republican, 28,977; 
O. N. Marron, Democrat, 29,867; Marron's plurality, 890. 

For Attorney General, Frank W. Clancy, Republican, 
30,162; W. R. McGill, Democrat, 28,721; Clancy's plurahty 
1441. 

For Superintendent of Public Instruction, A. B. Stroup, 
Republican, 29,411; A. N. White, Democrat, 29,522; White's 
plurality 111. 

For Commissioner of Pubhc Lands, R. P. Ervien, Republi- 
can, 29,706; J. L. Emerson, Democrat, 29,242; Ervien's plural- 
ity 464. 

For Justices of the Supreme Court, Frank W. Parker, Re- 
publican 29,583; C. J. Roberts, RepubHcan, 29,681; E. R. 
Wright, Republican, 29,541; R. H. Hanna, Progressive Re- 
publican, 29,674: Summers Burkhart, Democrat, 29,453: W. 
A. Dunn, Democrat, 29,423; Parker's plurality 130; Robert's 
258; Hanna's 133. 

ForCorporation Commissioners, G. W. Armijo, Republican, 
29,108; H. H. Wihiams, Republican, 29,835; M S. Groves, 
Republican, 29,783; George H. Van Stone, Progressive Re- 
publican, 29,451; O. L. Owen, Democrat, 28,509; Seferino 
Martinez, Democrat, 28,577. Through a mistake in printing, 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 629 

1032 voles were cast for Sol Owen and could not be counted 
forO. L.Owen. Williams" plurality 1326; Groves" 1206, Van 
Stone's, 343. 

The Blue Ballot — Majorities. 

The vote on the amendment of the constitution was the 
heaviest cast, the blue ballot receiving 57,728 votes of which 
34,897 were for it and 22,831 against it. 

The majorities range as follows: 

Blue Ballot 12,066 

McDonald .* 1,230 

Roberts 258 

Hanna , . , 133 

Parker - 130 

Curry 64 

All other successful candidates were elected by pluralities. 
The plurality ranged as follows: 

Blue Ballot 12,066 

McDonald 3,017 

Curry 1,809 

De Baca 1,736 

Clancy , 1,441 

Williams 1,326 

Groves 1,206 

Fergusson 1,163 

Marron 890 

Lucero 760 

Ervien 464 

Sargent 441 

Van Stone 343 

Roberts 258 

Hanna 133 

Parker. , 130 

White Ill 

List of State Officers and Standing of the Two Parties. 

Governor, W. C. McDonald, Democrat. 
Lieutenant Governor, E. C. de Baca, Democrat. 
Secretary of State, Antonio Lucero, Democrat. 
State Treasurer, O. N. Marron, Democrat. 



630 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Superintendent of Public Instruction, Alvan N. White^ 
Democrat, 

State Auditor, William G. Sargent, Republican, 

Attorney General, Frank W. Clancy, Republican. 

Land Commissioner, Robert P. Ervien, Republican. 

Supreme court, Clarence J. Roberts and Frank W. Parker. 
Republicans, Richard H. Hanna, Progressive Republican. 

Corporation Commissioners, Hugh H. Williams and M. S. 
Groves, Republicans, and George H. Van Stone, Progressive 
Republican. 

The Republicans have eight, the Progressive Republicans 
two and the Democrats six of these officers, the Republicans 
controlling the state supreme court and the state corpora- 
tion commission, the Democrats having not a single member 
on these two bodies. 

Certificates for district judges were issued to four Repub- 
licans, one Progressive Republican and three Democrats. 

Certificates for district attorneys were issued to five Re- 
publicans and three Democrats. 

Certificates to the State Senate were given to fifteen Re- 
publicans, A. C. Abeytia in Soc^orro county, being defeated, 
two Progressive Republicans and seven Democrats; to mem- 
bership in the House to thirty Republicans, three Progressive 
Republicans and sixteen Democrats, the Democrats having' 
elected less than one-third of the membership in either 
house. 

The Amendment to the Constitution is Officially Announced. 

On the same day that the canvassing board sent its certi- 
ficate of the result of the election to the President of the 
United States, December 30, 1911, governor William J. Mills, 
complying with the duty imposed by the Flood resolution 
upon him, declared, that the constitution had been amended^ 
by the adoption of said resolution; this he did by issuing an 
official proclamation. 

The Certificate Reaches the President. 

On January 4, (1912) the certificate of the result of New 
Mexico's first legal state election was delivered to President 
Taft by Congressmen Fergusson and Curry, accompanied 



[LLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 631 

by Delegate W. H. Andrews and other friends of New Mexico 
then sojourning in Washington. From a telegram received 
in Santa F6, and published in the Santa Fe New Mexican of 
that date, it was learned that "President Taft was much 
interested, for it was the first time he has had a chance to 
add another star to the American flag." 

Order to Prepare the Formal Proclamation. 

From the same telegram it was learned that President 
Taft at once instructed the Secretary of State, Mr. Knox, "to 
draw the formal proclamation of admission," the President 
expressing himself desirous "to sign the proclamation at 10 
a. m. tomorrow, (January 5)."' 

It Was Short But Very Annoying. 

Friday, January 5th, 1912, nearly every man, woman and 
child in the Capital City, Santa Fe, at 8 a. m. (which was 10 
a.m. in Washington) looked the very picture of happiness; 
the day was extremely cold, but that did not hinder the 
people from going out to the bulletin board, postoffice, tele- 
graph offices and to all other places where telegrams were 
likely to be received from Washington, all asking these ques- 
tions: "Are we in?" "Has President Taft signed the proc- 
lamation?" No one could answer. Later in the forenoon 
anxiety was noticeable in every face; finally the rumor that 
the issuing of the proclamation had been postponed to 2 
p. m. gained some circulation and relieved the anxiety which 
had began to make some people fear that some unforseen 
obstacle had again blocked the way. The hour of 2 p. m. 
arrived and no telegram came from Washington and so the 
crowds gave vent to their fear of another disappointment, 
and so it was for the evening paper, the Santa Fe New 
Mexican, came out that day earlier than usual with these 
significant words in large black type letters: 

"Hoodoo Works to Last Minute. 

Under this heading this telegram appeared: "Washing- 
ton, D. C, Jan. 5. — Delegate W. H. Andrewshas just received 
word from the White House that the Department of Justice 
wanted delay on the statehood proclamation until they could 



632 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

arrange to dismiss the demurrers and appeals in the old 
timber cases. The President is vexed and displeased, and 
said he will not hold up a state's admission on any such old 
cases and will not wait longer than next week at the latest." 
The attitude of President Taft had the effect of inspiring 
everyone with the hope that the next Monday, January 8, the 
last bondage link of the chain of suffering would be cast to 
the winds and the long fight finished. 

Justice is Done at Last. 
The displeasure of President Taft had the effect of prompt- 
ing the attorney general of the United States to imme- 
diately take the necessary steps to remove the obstacles 
without further delay. The demurrers and "old timber 
cases" referred to were pending in the supreme court of 
New Mexico, so on the evening of the 5th of January, after 
the president had so clearly expressed his vexation at the 
action of the Department of Justice, the acting attorney 
general wired the clerk of the supreme court of New Mexico 
the following instructions: 

Attorney General's Telegram. 
"Washington D. C. January 5, 1912. 

Clerk Supreme Court. 
Issue at once writ of error to review judgment rendered 
by district court, sixth judicial district last month, dis- 
missing bill of complaint in cause number 14, entitled United 
States against the Alamogordo Lumber Company, a corpo- 
ration. Absolutely necessary writ should issue to-night to 
prevent delay in signing proclamation for admission of New 
Mexico as state. Answer to-night. 

Knaebel, acting attorney general.'" 

The instructions were immediately complied with, the last 
obstacle removed and the President was the next day (Janu- 
ary 6) notified that the proclamation was ready for his sig- 
nature. 

The Proclamation is Signed — New Mexico Becomes the 47th Star in 
the Glorious American Flag. 
It was Saturday, the 6tli day of January, in the year of our 
Lord one thousand nine hundred and twelve, at the hour of 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 633 

1:35 p. m. (Washington time, and 11:35 a. m., New Mexico 
time) and just 61 years 6 months and eighteen days since the 
first statehood convention had been held in New Mexico 
(June 20, 1850) and 63 years 11 months and 5 days from the 
day the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed (February 
2, 1848) that the rights and privileges of American citizen- 
ship were extended to New Mexico. 

On that day, and at the time stated, President Taft, in the 
presence of Delegate W. H. Andrews, Congressmen Curry 
and Fergusson, four members of the cabinet and other friends 
of New Mexico, affixed his signature to the proclamation 
admitting New Mexico to the American Union. The pen used 
by the President was made of gold with pearl handle which 
Delegate Andrews furnished the President with. After 
signing the proclamation the President remarked: "Well, it 
is all over. I am glad (speaking to Delegate Andrews and our 
Congressmen) to give you life, I hope you will be healthy."' 
The New Mexico delegate (whose official functions as such 
had just ceased) and our Congressmen thanked the President 
on their behalf and on behalf of the people of New Mexico. 

Archbishop Pitaval Thanks the President. 

In Santa Fe everybody was rejoicing, and the first person 

to express his gratitude to the President was the Most Rev, 

J. B. Pitaval, Archbishop of Santa Fe, who at once wired the 

following message: 

"Santa Fe, N. M., January 6, 1912. 

"President Taft, Washington, D. C. 

"I rejoice with the people of New Mexico over your procla- 
mation. Heartiest congratulations. 

Archbishop J. B. Pitaval," 

Thus ended the noble and patriotic fight initiated by the 
people of New Mexico over sixty-one years ago. Good and 
sufficient reasons did our people have to celebrate the 6th 
day of January, 1912, as the most memorable day in its his- 
tory, for on that day the long desired transformation from a 
mere province-like colony into a sovereign state was realized. 
It was a recognition to which the people of New Mexico on 
all occasions proved its right and worthiness to, it was a rec- 
ognition which had been unjustly withheld from them. 



634 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

The President's Proclamation.* 

Whereas the congress of the United States did by an act 
approved on the twentieth day of June, one thousand nine 
hundred and ten, authorize the people of the Territory of 
New Mexico to form a constitution and state government, 
and provide for the admission of such state into the union on 
an equal footing with the original states upon certain condi- 
tions in said act specified: 

And WHEREAS said people did adopt a constitution and ask 
admission into the union: 

And whereas the congress of the United States did pass 
a joint resolution, which was approved on the twenty-first 
day of August, one thousand nine hundred and eleven, for 
the admission of the state of New Mexico into the union, 
which resolution required that the electors of New Mexico 
should vote upon an amendment of their state constitution, 
which was proposed and set forth at length in said resolu- 
tion of congress, as a condition precedent to the admission of 
said state, and that they should so vote at the same time 
that the first general election as provided for in the said 
constitution should be held: 

And whereas it appears from information laid before me 
that said first general state election was held on the seventh 
day of November, one thousand nine hundred and eleven, 
and that the returns of said election upon said amendment 
were made and canvassed as in section five of said resolution 
of congress provided: 

And whereas the governor of New Mexico has certified 
to me the result of said election upon said amendment and of 
the said general election: 

And whereas the conditions imposed by the said act of 
congress approved on the twentieth day of June, one thou- 
sand nine hundred and ten, and by the said joint resolution of 
congress have been fully complied with: 

*The officially certified copy of the foreg-oing- Proclamation is on file 
in the office of Hon. Antonio Lucero, Secretary of the State of New 
Mexico, througli whose courtesy I was able to reproduce same herein, 
—The Author. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 635 

Now THEREFORE, I, WiLLiAM HOWARD Taft, President 
of the United States of America, do, in accordance with the 
provisions of the act of congress and the joint resolution of 
congress herein named, declare and proclaim the fact that 
the fundamental conditions imposed by congress on the state 
of New Mexico to entitle that state to admission have been 
ratified and accepted, and that the admission of the state 
into the union on an equal footing with the other states is 
now complete. 

In TESTIMONY WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and 
caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. 

Done at the City of Washington this sixth day of Jan- 
uary, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine 
(Seal) hundred and twelve and of the Independence of 
of the United States of America, the one hun- 
dred and thirty-sixth. 
By the president: Wm.H. Taft. 

P. C. Knox, 

Secretary of State. 

No. 8613. 
United States of America. 

(Emblem) 
Department of State. 
To all to whom these presents shall come, greeting: 
I certify that the document hereunto annexed is a true 
copy from the original in the archives of this department. 

(A proclamation by the President of the United States, 
dated January 6, 1912, admitting the state of New Mexico 
into the union.) 

In testimony whereof I, P. C. Knox, secretary of state, 
have hereunto caused the seal of the depart- 
ment of state to be affixed and my name sub- 
(Seal) scribed by the Chief Clerk of the said depart- 
ment, at the city of Washington, this "22nd day 
of January, 1912. 

(Signed) P. C. Knox, 

Secretary of State. 
By (Signed) Wm. McNeir, 

Chief Clerk. 



636 ILI.USTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

New Mexico's Congressmen Take Their Seats. 

On Monday, January 8, (1912) at 12:04 p. m., according to a 
telegram from Washington, published in the daily papers of 
New Mexico on that day, Congressman Sulzer, from New 
York, addressing the Speaker of the House of Representa- 
tives said: "Mr. Speaker, I have the honor to present to the 
House, Representatives-elect George Curry and H. B. Per- 
gusson from New Mexico.'" Mr. Sulzer then escorted 
Messrs. Curry and Fergusson to the front of the speaker's 
desk and the oath of office was administered to them by 
Speaker Clark, after which ceremony desks were assigned 
to-the newly sworn members "in the rear row of seats on the 
Republican side," amidst cheers from both sides of the 
House. 

Organization of the First State Supreme Court. 

Under the state constitution the first supreme court of 
New Mexico is composed of three judges, their term of office 
was determined by casting lots, the longest term being nine 
years, short time five years and the third, or middle term, 
of seven years, the judge drawing the short term being the 
one upon whom falls the honor of being the Chief Justice. 
The salaries of these judges are fixed in the constitution at 
$6,000 each annually. 

Clarence J. Roberts, First Chief Justice. 

On the 11th day of January, 1912, the Territorial Supreme 
Court met for the last time at the capitol in Santa F6 at 8:30 
p. m., and after transacting the last business, to close that 
court forever, the crier of the court in a loud voice announced, 
or rather pronounced, the Territorial Supreme court out of 
existence in the following words: ''Hear ye! Hear ye! The 
Honorable Supreme Court of the Territory of New Mexico is 
adjourned sine die.'" The new supreme court was then 
organized, after the three judges had been sworn in by 
retiring Associate Justice John R. McFie. The new supreme 
court judges had previously cast lots which gave them the 
following terms: Clarence J. Roberts, short term of five 
years, which made him Chief Justice. Richard H. Hanna, 
seven year term and Frank W. Parker the long term, nine 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 637 

years. The new court immediately held its first session by 
electing its clerk and one bailiff and adjourning until January 
17, (1912) at 10 a. m. 

Third Greatest Event in the History of New Mexico — State Govern- 
ment Formally Organized — W. G. McDonald, the First Governor 
Qualifies as Such- 

The 30th day of April, 1598, marks in our history the first 
of the three greatest events for it was on that day that Don 
Juan de Onate entered New Mexico and took formal and 
solemn possession of the country in the name of Don Felipe 
Segundo, (Philip the Second) King of Spain, which act of pos- 
session was followed by the establishment of colonies and the 
conversion of the Pueblo Indians. 

The Second Greatest Event. 

The next greatest event in our history was the coming of 
General Kearny and his taking formal possession of New 
Mexico, in Santa Fe, August 18, 1846, on which date the 
change of flags took place and the people of New Mexico 
received the promise of ample protection from Indian 
raids and depredations, as well as the promise of true and 
complete autonomy. From that promise, and the solemn 
obligation assumed by the American government in the treaty 
with Mexico in 1848, sprang the hope with which the tight for 
admission to the union was maintained, and which came to a 
happy end with the solemn change of governments — from 
territorial to state government — on the 15th day of January, 
A. D. 1912, that memorable date marking in our history 

The Third Greatest Event. 

As the reader has already seen several of the state officials 
had already entered into the discharge of their duties, these 
were our two congressmen and the judges of the state 
supreme court, but the government proper remained under 
the old territorial officials, said officials having been, in fact, 
the first state officials, de facto if not dejure, until the 15th da^^ 
of January, 1912, when all the state officials elect, from gov- 
ernor down, qualified, establishing thus the state government 
by which the people of New Mexico came into the possession 



638 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

of the greatest of political rights, that of full fledged American 
citizens by having such government as the immortal Lincoln 
characterized as a free government. "A Government of the 
People, by the People and for the People.'" We will now give 
a detailed account of the doings on that, the 3rd most memor- 
able day in our history, the 15th of January, 1912. 

Inauguration of State Officials. 

William C, McDonald, governor elect, was given an ovation. 
The full report of his inauguration was published in the 
Capital's daily. The Santa Fe New Mexican, on the day of the 
occurrence, and in the other dailies of New Mexico. 

The following list comprises the full set of the other state 
nflficials who qualified and entered into the performance of 
their respective duties: 

Lieutenant Governor, Esequiel C. de Baca, democrat. 

Secretary of State, Antonio Lucero, democrat, succeeding 
Nathan Jaffa, republican. 

Attorney General Frank W. Clancy, republican, succeed- 
ing himself. 

State Auditor, William G. Sargent, republican, succeeding 
himself. 

State Treasurer, O. N. Marron, democrat, succeeding 
Rufus J. Palen, republican. 

Superintendent of Instruction, Alvan N. White, democrat, 
succeeding James E. Clark, progressive republican. 

Commissioner of Public Lands, R. P. Ervien, republican, 
succeeding himself. 

Corporation Commission, Hugh H. Williams, republican, 
M. S. Groves, republican, George H. Van Stone, progressive 
republican. 

President Taft Thanks Archbishop PitavaL 

Appreciative of the telegram of congratulation sent him 
by Archbishop Pitaval, supra. President Taft by letter dated 
January 7, 1912, writes the Archbishop thus: 

"The White House, Washington D. C, January 7, 1912. 
"My Dear Archbishop Pitaval — The President has received 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 639 

your telegram of the 6th. inst. and asks me to thank you for 
sending it. It gave him great pleasure to sign the procla- 
mation admitting New Mexico into the Union as a state. 

Very truly yours, 
Charles D. Hilles, 
Secretary to the President." 

Underneath President Taft wrote himself these words: 
"Thank you, Archbishop! Wm. H. T." 

The 47th Star, New Mexico. 

Ode written and set to music by Rev. Julius Hartman, 
assistant Parish Priest to the Pastor of Guadalupe Church, 
Santa Pe. Sung immediatly after the inaugural address of 
Governor McDonald, by a chorus composed of young ladies 
and men, all competent singers, and arranged as a living 
American flag: 

The 47th Star, New Mexico. 



Country dear, where the eternal sun shines; 
There one finds what is creation's best. 
Where fair, distant, lofty mountain-outlines 
Touch the heaven's canopy. 
And eyes on vast plains rest; 
'Tis this country we hallow, 
New, Mexico. 

Generations strug-gled hard 
To make its people free, 
Till at last, Columbia's Guard 
Sounds Liberty. 

II. 

Country dear, now gleam thy new star's pure ray 
From the blue vault of God's mighty dome. 
Night is past, there dawns for thee a new day. 
Undimmed, keep thy radiance all 

In time to come. 
Be our guide, does darkness fall: 

Lead to our home. 



640 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

III. 

Country dear, where ancient races' feet trod 
This ever calm and silent fairy-land. 
Here apostle — soldiers of the true God 
Planted on its hills the cross, 
Blood stained its burning sand. 
Now the Union's banner floats 

O'er free man's land. 

Guard this land against the foe, 

O God its barque Thou steer; 

And sail on New Mexico, 

Grow without fear. 

IV. 

Country dear, fare on and prosper ever. 
Happiness, peace, dwell beneath thy sky. 
Duty, virtue, love for thee may never 
Part from me, this is my pray'r; 
And on the day I die. 
May I find in this land fair 
A place to lie. 

Meeting of the First Slate Legislature. 

Pursuant to the call issued by Governor McDonald, the 
first State legislature met in Santa F6, the Capital, on the 
11th day of March, A. D., 1912, and Hon. Roman Liberato 
Baca was elected Speaker of the House, the Lieutenant Gov- 
ernor, Hon. Ezequiel C. de Baca, being, by a constitutional 
provision, the President of the Senate. 

Membership of the First State Legislature — Their Residence and 

Politics. 

SENATORS. 

John S. Clark, East Las Vegas, Republican. 
Juan Navarro, Mora, Republican. 
Louis C. Ilfeld, Las Vegas, Republican. 
Thomas D. Burns, Tierra AmariJla, Republican. 
Joseph F. Sulzer, Albuquerque, Progressive Republican. 
Epimenio A. Miera, Cuba, Republican. 
Isaac Barth, Albuquerque, Democrat. 
E. C. Crampton, Raton, Republican. 
- Eugenio B. Gallegos, Clayton, Republican. 
Benjamin P. Pankey, Lamy, Republican. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OP NEW MEXICO. 641 

Squire Hartt, Jr., Ranches of Taos, Republican. 

Boleslo Romero, Los Lunas, Republican. 

Charles J. Laughren, Deming, Republican. 

Abelino Romero, San Marcial, Progressive Republican. 

William M. McCoy, Mountainair, Republican. 

Herbert B. Holt, Las Cruces, Republican. 

Gregory Page, Gallup, Republican. 

John M. Bowman, Alamogordo, Republican. 

James F. Hinkle, Roswell, Democrat. 

Fred F. Doepp, Carlsbad, Democrat. 

A. J. Evans, Portales, Democrat. 

C. H. AUdredge, Tucumcari, Democrat. 

T. J. Mabry, Clovis, Democrat. 

W, B. Walton, Silver City, Democrat, 

REPRESENTATIVES. 

Zacarias Padilla, Los Lunas, Republican. 

Miguel E. Baca, Los Lunas, Republican. 

Conrad N. Hilton, San Antonio, Republican. 

Thomas F. Cooney, Mogollon, Republican. 

Tomas A. Gurule, Albuquerque, Democrat. 

John Baron Burg, Albuquerque, Democrat. 

Rafael Garcia, Albuquerque, Democrat. ^i 

Roman L. Baca, Santa F^, Republican. 

Charles C. Catron, Santa Fe, Republican. 

Julian Trujillo, Chimayo, Republican. 

J. P. Lucero, Lumberton, Republican. 

George W, Tripp, East Las Vegas, Republican. 

Jose Lobato, Tecolote, Republican. 

Francisco Quintana, Las Vegas, Republican. 

Bias Sanchez, Wagon Mound, Republican. 

Remigio Lopez, Roy, Democrat. 

J. R. Skidmore, Raton, Republican. 

M. C. Martinez, Raton, Democrat. 

Manuel Cordova, Taos, Republican. 

Luis R. Montoya, Taos, Republican. 

Marcos C. de Baca, Bernalillo, Progressive Republican. 

O, T. Toombs, Clayton, Republican. 

J. D. Casados, Clapham, Democrat. 

James W. Chaves, Willard, Republican. 



642 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Juan J. Clancy, Puerto de Luna, Republican. 

John Young, Gallup, Republican. 

Duncan McGillivray, Crown Point, Republican. 

W. H. H. Llewellyn, Las Cruces, Republican. 

Presiliano Moreno, Las Cruces, Republican. 

James V. TuUy, Glencoe, Republican. 

Charles P. Downs, Alamogordo, Republican. 

J. W. Mullens, Roswell, Democrat. 

J. T. Evans, Roswell, Democrat. 

W. E. Rogers, Roswell, Democrat. 

Hugh M Gage, Carlsbad, Democrat. 

Florence Love, Loving, Democrat. 

P. E. Carter, Portales, Democrat. . 

S. J. Smith, Deming, Democrat. 

A. S. Goodell, Silver City, Democrat. 

Robert H. Boulware, Silver City, Democrat. 

George H. Tucker, Hillsboro, Democrat. 

W. H. Chrisman, Aztec, Republican. 

J. W. Campbell, Tucumcari, Democrat. 

J. L House, House, Democrat. 

Antonio D. Vargas, Ojo Caliente, Republican. 

Tranquilino Labadie, Santa Rosa, Republican. 

Manuel P. Manzanares, Port Sumner, Republican. 

W. E. Blanchard, Arabella, Republican. 

W. W. Nichols, Clovis, Democrat. 

Election of First Senators to the United States Senate. 

The State Legislature after a somewhat stormy session of 
eight days on the 27th day March, 1912, elected Hon. Thomas 
Benton Catron, from Santa Pe, and Hon. Albert B. Fall, from 
Three Rivers, Otero county, as the tirst United States Sena- 
tors from the sovereign State of New Mexico. The two United 
States Senators thuselected wereon the 2nd dayof April, 1912, 
seated in the Senate of the United States thus making of New 
Mexico a full fledged state of the great American Union. 

May Our Star Spangled Banner be Forever the Symbol of True Liberty 
— Account of the Fight. 

During the eight legislative days, March 19th to 27th, 
(one Sunday the 24th, not counted) the senatorial contest 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 643 

was interesting and ver}^ complicated. There were many 
candidates, but the leading ones from the start were the 
two finally elected, Catron and Pall, ex-delegate in Congress 
from New Mexico, W. H. Andrews, ex Governor W, J. Mills, 
Octaviano A. Larrazolo, ex-Governor L. Bradford Prince, 
Malaquias Martinez, Roman L. Baca, Speaker of the House, 
Eugenio Romero, with two or three others who received one 
vote each. These were republicans. On the democratic side 
of the legislature. Judge N. B. Laughlin, and other prominent 
democrats, received a complimentary vote. A. A. Jones and 
Felix Martinez received the solid vote from the democratic 
and progressive members, which numbered twenty-six 
altogether. Don Solomon Luna although not a candidate 
refused for several days the toga. He was the unanimous 
choice of the republican members, but having promised to 
support Catron and Pall remained faithful to them until 
through his efforts all factions were brought together, thus 
effecting the election of Catron and Pall. * 

* In connection with the election of United States Senators a 
great scandal was developed from an effort made on the part of certain 
republican politicians to cause the arrest and unseating of the follow- 
ing four members of the House of Representatives: Manuel Cordova 
and Luis R. Montoya, members from Taos county and J. P. Lucero, 
and Julian Trujillo, members from Rio Arriba county, on charges 
made by one Elfego Baca accusing said men of soliciting money in 
consideration of tlieir support for certain candidates for the office of 
United States Senators. The author of this work and Geo. W. 
Prichard defended the accused men before the special committee of the 
House and E. R. Wriglit represented the House of Representatives. 
After a trial which lasted ten days, March 20th to March 29, 1912, the 
accused were exonerated. The following is a concise report of the 
trial as published by the press of New Mexico immediately after the 
trial: 

"Nothing has occurred during the session of tlie legislature that has 
created more interest and unalloyed satisfaction to the people who love 
a square deal than the re-seating of the four members in the lower 
house. On the 19th day of March, Trujillo, Lucero, Montoya and 
Cordova, all republican representatives from Taos and Rio Arriba 
counties, were charged with accepting bribes. They were arrested and 
put in jail at the instance of the executive committee of the republican 
party. . These four men were deprived of voting for their preference 
for United States Senators and from participating in any proceedings 
of the legislature for nineteen days. 

"There was no evidence during the investigation of this case to 



644 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



prove beyond a doubt, that the four men had accepted a bribe. The 
only witness for the prosecution who gave a clear and concise state- 
ment of everything- that transpired was Hon. Charles A. Spiess. His 
evidence was implicitly credited and from it nothing- could be deduced 
that would prove the the men guilty of the crime charged. Other 
witnesses corroborated the testimony of Mr. Spiess.'' —The AnTHOR. 




Spanisli-Aniei'ii"iii Si-liool.KI Hito. 



CHAPTER XIIL 



Historical Chain Composed of Disconnected Incidents — Puerto de Luna 
is Settled — Troubles With the Indians — Visit of a Distinguished 
Mexican Ceneral — La Roca del Moro — Aubry Weightman * 
Tragedy — Tragic Death of Beck and Corman. 



As the heading of this chapter indicates the narratives 
given in it, will be in the shape of historical incidents that, 
because of the fact of their being of a semi-local character, 
the author did not deem them as proper matter to be intro- 
duced in the body of the v^ork. They form, hoM/ever, a very in- 
teresting part of our history, because they present, in a strik- 
ing manner, the sufferings and vicissitudes which formed 
part of the lives of the families that first came to New Mexico 
to people many of the villages far away from the centers of 
population, many of them disregarding the danger of incur- 
sions of the Indians, and their attacks on individuals who 
happened to thus isolate themselves so to speak, from their 
neighbors. In relating all these incidents, the author has 
aimed, so far as it has been possible for him so to do, to give 
the narratives just as the same were given him by the very 
persons who either witnessed the acts, or had an opportunity 
of getting the information contemporaneously with the 
occurrence. 

Settlement of Puerto de Luna — Troubles With the Indians — By Fabian 
Brito, Age, 70 years. 

"In the winter of 1862, a committee of thirteen men was 
sent to examine the place where Puerto de Luna stands, with 
instructions to give a report of its conveniences for the estab- 
lishment of a colony of several families, and in the spring of 
the year following, the first families arrived there, consisting 
of the families of the following settlers, Don Melquiades 
Ramirez, Sixto Ramirez, Mercedes Carvajal, Fabian Brito, 
Pablo Pacheco and Miguel Chavez. 

"In the spring of that year they made a dyke across the 



646 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Rio de Pecos, constructing an acequia therefrom to irrigate 
their lands, which they cultivated with great success, but 
they did not wait long before bands of savage Indians, 
chiefly from the Navajoe tribe commenced to attack them, 
for during the summer of that year they attacked the herder 
employed in caring for the stock of the village, and killed 
him, but were pursued by the people and all the animals 
taken back, the Indians taking to flight on being overtaken 
by the people. They came afterwards and killed a boy who 
was also employed in herding animals; but the alarm being 
at once given, they were again quickly pursued, preventing 
them from driving away any animals. One of the best 
shots of the settlers succeeded in killing an Indian before 
he, the Indian, escaped in the darkness of night to the neigh- 
boring hill, for these Indians always waited till sun-down in 
order to attack their victims. 

"During the winter of the same year other settlers arrived, 
about five families more, and took possession of the lands on 
the east side of the river, built an acequia (ditch) to irrigate 
them, dividing the land among themselves in such quantities 
as each was able to cultivate. The first flour mill was estab- 
lished on the west side of the river by Don Melquiades Rami- 
rez. The mill was worked by water-power from the acequia. 

"In the spring of 1864, the Indians made another incursion 
and carried away many of the horses, but they were pursued 
very closely and were overtaken the next day in the plains to 
the west where they were given battle, the result of which was 
the killing of three Indians, the others escaping because they 
had the best horses. One of our men was slightly wounded. 

"In the spring of 1866, intelligence reached Puerto de Luna 
that the Navajoes had carried away a flock of sheep belonging 
to the late "Caate Rael," of Antonchico. Ten men started 
out at once, and twelve more on foot in search of them, and 
overtook the Indians on the other side of Salado Creek 
(Arroyo Salado). The Indians were about twenty -five in num- 
ber, and when our men first caught sight of them, they tried 
to flank us in order to cut out our escape. Our men succeeded 
in discovering the plan without being seen by the Indians; 
but a contrary and somewhat tempestuous wind gave the 
Indians all the advantage, and they availed themselves 



648 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

of it; for rushing onward with the flock of sheep they raised 
an immense cloud of dust which hid them from the sight of 
our men and safe from being hurt; while our men remained in 
the uncovered portion of thegroundin such positionas to make 
a sure target for the Indian shooters. Soon two of our men 
were wounded. Seeing this disadvantage, and that the sun 
was about to set, while the men on foot would not be able to 
arrive soon to their aid, they had to abandon the assault with- 
out any other success than that of having rescued a shepherd 
whom the Indians had captured with the same flock, and 
whom they had obliged to haul water for tlie journey, pricking 
him with their lances to make him travel when already 
exhausted by fatigue." 

The Visit of General Palacio. 

From the day in which the change of flags was effected, the 
soil of Nev^ Mexico had never again been trodden by a general 
of the Mexican army, until the year 1886, when the Capital 
was visited by the famed general, distinguished statesman 
and erudite man of letters, General Vicente Riva Palacio. In 
the civic and military history of the Mexican Republic, the 
figure of the sympathetic General Palacio stands in bold relief 
among the many great men of Mexico. Palacio was great in 
the world of letters, in the military career, and as a diplomat. 
As a learned man, he was author of many important works 
of literature and poetry; as a soldier, he covered himself with 
glory during the war of intervention, he being the man who 
received the svs'ord of the vanquished Emperor Maximilian. 

As a diplomat his fame is well established in the history of 
nations, acting in that post, when his life ended, as minister 
plenipotentiary in the court of Spain a little after he had 
passed through New Mexico in 1886. On July 24th of that 
year. General Palacio arrived in Santa Fe, en route for Spain 
and Portugal, to which kingdoms he was going as minister. 
He was accompanied by all the members of the Mexican 
legation, namely: Mr. Icaza, secretary of the legation, 
Messrs. Galvan, Miranda and Sevilla, who formed part of the 
legation, and Mr. B. V. Whiting, who had been a resident of 
Santa F6 from 1849 to 1861. General Palacio was received 
with military honors by General Bradley, who was then 



r- 

p 







650 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

commanding officer of the military district of New Mexico. 
On the evening of the same day, the people of Santa Fe, 
without race distinction, gave General Palacio and the mem- 
bers of the legation a royal serenade in which addresses of 
welcome were delivered by Judge L. Bradford Prince, in 
English, and Larkin G. Read, in Spanish. The answer given 
by the general to the fine reception and welcome tendered 
him was couched in the following words;* 

"Brothers, Sirs, and Gentlemen: — I thank you all for this 
benevolent reception. When I left Mexico I had already 
determined to visit Santa Fe — the metropolis of New Mexico 
— for three reasons: First, because it is a historical center 
abounding in tender remembrances of past times; second, 
because in this place are three-fourths of a population, 
through whose veins circulates the same blood running 
through my veins; and third, because the fame of its hospi- 
tality is known the world over, and I cherished a profound 
desire of becoming acquainted with its people. 

My Mexican Brothers: It is highly gratifying to me to 
see you this evening face to face; I have for you the most 
profound sympathy, because you are flesh of my flesh and 
bone of my bones. I am very much pleased to see you living 
prosperous and happy under the shadow of the American 
Ensign, a post where destiny has placed you; but remember 
that beyond the 'Bravo" are you brothers, contented and 
happy, too; courage, then, and be loyal citizens to the 
most liberal government under the sun, and under whose 
protection you are treading on the march of progress. I 
have today been treated with warm hospitality; I have 
shaken hands with your military officers, and at that 
moment, I was convinced that we will never stand face to 
face in the field of battle, but we shall certainly combat 
shoulder to shoulder for American independence. Harmony 
is the name of these two great nations of the American 
continent; foreign powers may try to involve us in strife, 
but we shall always live in harmony, because harmony 
means the commercial interest of the United States. To the 
post of duty which my country has assigned me, I shall 
carry in my memory the recollection of the kindnesses of 
* See the "Boletin Popular'" of Santa F^, the 10th of July, 1886. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 651 

our American brothers on this occasion, and if God grants 
me hfe to return, my greatest satisfaction shall be to again 
shake the hand of these people." 

At the close of this address, which was received with 
applause and cheers, by the large concourse, the general 
received the hand-shake of a large number of his old fellow- 
citizens, and shortly after, retired for the night to his 
apartments. 

The next day, the general and his party, accompanied by 
several officers and citizens, visited all the points of interest 
in Santa P6, and, in the night, left for New York, from which 
point they were to set sail for Spain, where he died. Before 
leaving, the general left for publication, the note that follows: 

"Santa Fe, N. M., July 25, 1886. 
"To the People- 

"On leaving this fine city, without being able to take spe- 
cial leave of each of the persons who have honored me with 
such extraordinary demonstrations of sympathy, I avail 
myself of the newspaper press to say that, engraven in my 
heart by the hand of gratitude, I carry the noble, brilliant 
and cordial hospitality which I received from this city and 
which I shall never forget. 

Vicente Riva Palacio.'" 

La Roca del Moro. 

There is in the western part of New Mexico, and near the 
dividing line between New Mexico and Arizona, a monstrous 
rock, which, like a tower or light house, shoots up from the 
bottom of a valley rising to the height of 225 feet and com- 
manding a view of all the country for many miles around. 
That rock forms, undoubtedly, one of the most important 
pages in the history of New Mexico, as it was, for the con- 
querors, or at least the greater part of them, what the light 
house is for sailors. Many miles before reaching the val- 
leys of Zuiii, the conquerors beheld the rock to which they 
gave the name of "La Roca del Moro,"' (the Rock of the Moor) 
and so it was that it came to be the guiding object of the 
Spaniards in their entries into New Mexico. In said rock 
there is a very large cave in which the Spaniards were wont 



-652 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



to lodge, each of them leaving engraven in the rock, with a 
sharp steel tool, their names and dates of visit to the same. 
The first inscription reads thus: 

"The very illustrious Governor and Captain General of the 
Province of New Mexico, for our Lord the King, returning 




Parochial School, Santa Fe, undei- the care of the Sisters of Loretto, with Mon- 
sigiior Antonio Fourchegii in charge. 



from the pueblos of Zuiii, on the 25th day of July, 1629. 
At their request he left them in peace, imploring the favor 
as vassals of his majesty, and they offered him again their 
submission. All of which he did with the wisdom, zeal and 
prudence or the scrupulotis and gallant, Christian soldier."' 

In the lower part of the inscription just noted, the auto- 
graphs of Diego Nui5ez Vellido, Joseph Ramos, Diego 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 653 

Zapata, and Bartolome Naranjo may be seen engraven. 
That inscription is followed by another one which says: 

"By this place Governor Don Manuel Silva Nieto passed 
with the wagons of the King, our Lord, who, with the indis- 
putable might of his arm, has subdued that which was 
impossible, a thing that he alone could have accomplished,, 
on August 9, 1629, of which fact I went and carried testimony 
toZuni." 

In another part of the same rock the inscription is found 
which Oilate made in the year 1605, in his voyage to San 
Gabriel, New Mexico, from the Pacific Ocean. It reads thus: 

"Through this place the Commandant, Don .Tuan Onate, 
passed from the discovery of the South Sea, on* the 16th day 
of April, 1005." 

Almost touching Oiiate's inscription is found the inscrip-^ 
tion chiselled there by Don Diego de Vargas, in these words: 

"Here stood General Don Diego de Vargas, who conquered 
for our Holy Faith and the royal crown of Spain, the whole 
of New Mexico, at his own expense, in the year 1692." 

In like manner another inscription is found from the 
Governor General, Don Juan Pais Hurtado, engraven on July 
14th, 1736, in which is read: 

"On the 14th day of July, 1736, General Juan Pais Hurtado, 
the official visitor, passed through here accompanied by Cor- 
poral Joseph Truxillo." There is another inscription which, 
according to the dictum of historians, was engraved by the 
son of Governor Hurtado, in these words, in 1739, "On the 
5th day of the month of June of this year, 1739, Don Ramon 
Pais Hurtado passed through here, bound for Zuni." 

One of the best engraved inscriptions is the one made by 
Juan Archuleta. About the years 1630 or 1631, the Indians 
put to death Father Letrado, concerning which occurrence 
the reader has already been informed in another part of this 
work, and Captain Juan Archuleta was sent from Santa Fe, 
with an escort of soldiers, to punish the Indians for having 
killed Father Letrado. Archuleta and his soldiers were at the 
rock, and there Archuleta engraved the following inscription: 

"They passed through here on the 23rd of March, 1632, to 
avenge the death of Father Letrado." 

Other inscriptions are noted, but not being discernible,. 



654 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

according to trustworthy reports of persons who have 
recently visited the rock, they ought not to be recorded in 
history.* 

Aubry Weightman Tragedy — Death of Aubry. 

(From the written description given to the author by Don Demetrio 
Perez, who was an eye-witness). 

"The month of August, 1854, recorded one of the first 
murders among one of the most prominent members of Santa 
F^ society, at that time. Just eight years after the entry of 
Kearny into New Mexico, two of the greatest men of those 
times met in a bar room, Messrs. Francis Aubry and Richard 
H. Weightman. The first had just returned from a trip made 
to Cahfornia with the object of discovering a shorter route to 
the coast of the Pacific ocean in which he succeeded. The 
other, Weightman, had just returned from Washington after 
the close of his term as delegate to congress from New 
Mexico. Following an affectionate salutation came the 
'treats," and after the drinks came the trouble. By reason 
of a newspaper article their temper became inflamed whence 
followed an assault by Aubry on Weightman in which Aubry 
threw the liquor on Weightman's face covering him, at the 
same time, with his pistol. Weightman, however, was quicker, 
for, drawing his dagger he plunged it into Aubry "s heart, he, 
Aubry, dying that very instant. Weightman was then 
arrested by the sheriff, Jesus Maria Baca. He was subse- 
quently indicted, tried and acquitted." 

Beck-Gorman Tragedy. 

The other celebrated event which culminated in the tragic 
death of both combatants happened also in Santa Fe, in the 
year 1858, between two prom.inent merchants of the Capital. 
Early in the month of March of that year, Preston Beck, a 
partner of the firm, "Beck and Johnson," had a wrangle with 
one of the clerks employed in the commercial house of a cer- 
tain Richard Owens, named Gorman, because Gorman had 
reprehended another employe, named Pancho Griego, who 
worked for Beck. Beck went to Owens* establishment and 

* Mrs. Blanche Dougan Hole in "El Boletin Popular" of Septem- 
ber 10, 1903. 



o 



X 



< 
TC 




656 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

attempted to scold Gorman, but Gorman would not allow it, 
whence a challenge to armed combat followed in which both 
used pocket knives. The stabbing was frightful, and fatal to 
both parties, as Gorman fell dead on the spot, and Beck died 
a week after the unfortunate encounter. This information 
the author of this work received from Mr. Perez. 



\ 



V ) 




APPENDIX FIRST. 



IS- 

e 



A Memorial That Contains the History of New Mexico From Its Di 
covery to the Year 1630, Written by Father Fray Alonso D 
Benavides, Custodian of New Mexico, and Presented to the King 
by Said Father and Fray Juan de Santander in Madrid — Printed in 
Madrid in the Same Year, 1630, and Re-Printed in Mexico in 1889, 
and Annexed as ''Appendix Second" to "La Historia de La Nuevo 
Mejico," of Villagra From Which It Is Reproduced. 



"I, Sir Fray Juan de Santander, of the order of Saint 
Francis, Commissary General of the Indies, say: That with 
the narration made to me by Father Fray Alonso de Bena- 
vides, Custodian of the conversions of New Mexico, last year, 
1626, on July 20th, concerning the large increases which 
those conversions were acquiring and how much religious 
persons were missed for administering them, did inform 
Your Majesty; in attention to which, with the accustomed 
zeal of so great a Catholic King and Lord, you vouchsafed 
to order a Royal schedule issued of the following import: 
Marquis of Cerralvo, my relative, my Viceroy, Governor and 
Captain General of the Provinces of New Spain, or to the 
person or persons in whose charge is the administration of 
their government: Fray Juan de Santander, Commissary 
General of the Indies, has informed me that it is more than 
thirty years that the conversion of New Mexico was com- 
menced by religious persons of his order, where they 
stayed for more than twelve years without producing any 
results from those souls; and yet the Province of the Holy 
Gospel was ever careful to send out a commissary and some 
religious persons to that land; and that it is about five years, 
according to the Provincial Chapter that was held in the 
Province of the Holy Gospel, that New Mexico was erected 
into a Custody, (mission) and given as its Custodian, Fray 
Alonso de Benavidqs, a religious of good example and life, 
and that you gave him leave to take along twenty-six 
ministers for the purpose of those conversions (as he did 



658 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

take them,) and that at present there are only 16 priests and 
three laymen, the others having: died; and, as they are so few 
and the district embraced by such custody being of more 
than a hundred leagues of route, rough and mountainous, and 
the Indians existing there being thirtj^ four thousand three 
hundred and twenty, they (the religious) cannot attend to 
their administration; he requested me to vouchsafe to com- 
mand that you and that audiencia should send out to that 
custod}'^ as many as thirty ministering priests and some 
laymen, and that said conversions should be kept going on, 
and you should be helping them with what is necessary; and 
this matter having been considered in my council of the 
Indies, I have approved it as a good thing; and therefore, 
I command you to cause thirty religious persons to be sent 
out to the said custody of New Mexico for the said conversion 
and teaching of the Indians; and hereafter you shall have 
great care that they be provided with as many more religious 
as may seen to be necessary, for such is my will.'* 

"Madrid the ISthof November, sixteen hundred and twenty- 
seven: 

"And, in compliance, and conformit}^ with such a Catholic 
schedule and command, thirty religious went out from the 
Province of the Holy Gospel of Mexico, last year 1629, — all of 
exemplary life, and with the same resolve as made by those 
who were there; and by the preaching and exertions of these 
thirty who so went out recently by command of Your 
Majesty, Our Lord, has worked so many wonders and mir- 
acles, and made such grand discoveries of riches, both spiri- 
tual and temporal, that it seemed fitting to the Viceroy of 
New Spain, and Commissary General of that region, that said 
Father Fray Alonso de Benavides, as a person in whose hand 
the direction of those conversions was placed during these 
years, should come personally to exhibit to Your Majesty the 
fruits of the zeal with which Your Majesty favors and protects 
them, giving them, even in this life, part of the infinite reward 
which awaits you and you deserve; for besides the treasure of 
live hundred thousand souls converted to our holy Catholic 
faith, and subject to Your Majesty, out of whom there are 
already more than eighty-six thousand baptized, Our Lord 
also pays you in that which is temporal with the discovery 



3 

o 




660 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

of such rich treasures in mines so prosperous. And as said 
Father has come to this court with this sole purpose, having 
traveled in this year 1630, more than two thousand six hun- 
dred leagues amid many dangers and difficulties, and as he 
is a person worthy of all credit, and of any favor that 
Your Majesty may be pleased to grant him on account of the 
abundant work he has made in those conversions, I ask 
of and implore from Your Majesty to be pleased to listen 
to the memorial he shall present, in which he gives a 
summary of all that Our Lord has worked in those conver- 
sions, with the royal protection of Your Majesty, as also that 
he may, by word, make manifest the abundant service of our 
religion in that remote kingdom of yours, which has been 
performed with advantage to the souls of so many infidel 
barbarians who have received the knowledge of our good God 
and Lord whose principal merit Your Majesty enjoys; and 
his memorial is in the following forum. 

Fray Juan de Santander, 

Commissary General of the Indies. 

"Sir: I, Fray Alonzo de Benavides, of the order of Saint 
Francis, Custodian of the conversions and custody of New 
Mexico, say that the events and things of that kingdom, or 
rather of the new world, which in these current years we, 
the religious of my Father, Saint Francis, the first and only 
ones therein, have converted and pacified unto God, our 
Lord, and unto the obedience of Your Majesty, because no 
other religious order up to now has entered there, are so 
many and such that I shall not be able to represent them at 
a single time, and briefly, for, with the royal succors and 
protection of Your Majesty, we hive discovered great treas- 
ures both spiritual and temporal, which His Divine Majesty 
has vouchsafed to honor with so many marvels and miracles 
that it seemed fitting both to the Viceroy of Mexico and to 
my religious order to command me to come personally to 
manifest them to Your Majesty, as I have been the person 
who has governed and administered them for many years; 
and that, in whatever I should fall short in this memorial (in 
avoiding prolixity) to whom we so much desire to serve, I 
should state it in words in the intervals that Your Majesty 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 661 

may be pleased to hear me; and I shall consider it a very 
great reward for the many dangers, toils and pilgrimages 
which we there went through with such a brilliant success 
in honor and glory of God, our Lord, that Your Majesty may 
at least be advised of it, and may know also of the great esteem 
and prayers you enjoy and receive in those remote provinces, 
at a distance from here of more than two thousand, six hun- 
dred leagues, which I have traveled precisely for this pur- 
pose, this year of 1630, esteeming all this time and work 
as very well employed on seeing myself at the feet of Your 
Majesty; and I declare, as follows: 

Nations That Inhabit the Road to New Mexico. 

"The Kingdom and Provinces of New Mexico are situated 
four hundred leagues beyond the city of Mexico, at 37 
degrees; and although at that place are its towns, its dis- 
trict commences two hundred leagues before reaching that 
point, that is, at the Valley of Santa Barbara, the last pueblo 
of New Spain in that region, the division being made by the 
Rio de Conchos, so named on account of the Concho nation 
which inhabits it. Hence we go along the Rio Grande for 
a hundred leagues which are crossed amid great dangers, 
because they are inhabited by the nations of the Tobosos, 
Tarahumares, Tepeoanes, Tomites, Sumas, Hanos, and others 
— very ferocious, savage, and indomitable peoples; for they 
go along always entirely naked without scarcely having a 
single sowing field; they live from what they hunt, that is, 
every species of animals, though these be unclean, moving, 
for these purposes from hills to hills; and, on account of 
gambling, these nations are wont to have civil wars, and 
brutally kill themselves. Their arms are the bow and arrow 
which are generally the arms of all the other nations. 
While crossing among them, they attack us face to face, if 
they see few people among us, and do all the harm they can; 
wherefore it is not possible to pass except with two men on 
horseback and very well armed, and, even with this precau- 
tion, it is necessary to go along with care making fires early 
in the night, in order to divert them, and to go ahead as 
much as is possible, for, when they see a large force of people, 
they at least try during the night, to do all the mischief they 



662 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

can among the horses; and ever since New Mexico was dis- 
covered there have always been wars, on passing through 
these hundred leagues, with these Indians for the defense 
against the damages they endeavor to inflict on us, although, 
through God our Lord's mercy, the Spaniards always come 
out victorious. We have made every effort possible to con- 
vert and pacify all these nations, both for the good of their 
souls, as well as for the safety of the road, but their savagery 
is so great that they won't allow themselves to be spoken to. 
May our Lord vouchsafe to hasten the time of their conver- 
sion as the others. 

The Manso Nation of the Rio del Norte. 

"These hundred leagues being passed, we arrive at the 
famous Rio del Norte, which has this name because it drags 
its current from that direction for many leagues. This 
river runs a hundred leagues before leaving New Mexico; it 
is inhabited by a nation commonly called Mansos or Gorretas, 
because they so dress their hair that they look as though 
they had a cap on their heads; and are easily scared by our 
dogs which have some times bitten them when they have 
received us in a warlike mood, and as also, when they have 
come to us peacefully and gently, we say to the dogs, 'sal ahi', 
that they may not bite them, so, too, they are wont to signify 
to us not to turn the dogs loose on them by telling us 'sal 
ahi, manso, manso,' and by this name of 'Mansos' they are 
commonly known among us. These, too, are a people that 
have no houses but ranches made of pine tree branches; they 
neither plant, nor dress themselves, but all go naked, and 
only the women cover themselves, from the waist down, with 
two deerskins, one in front and the other behind. They are 
also of the same condition as the preceding ones, that is, if 
they see their chance, they do all the harm they can, but 
being unable to do that, they come to us peaceably to get 
from us what they want to eat, for this is their chief aim, and 
a few of them can eat a whole raw cow, leaving nothing of the 
intestines, and not caring to clean them they swallow them 
together with the vascosity, like dogs, devouring them with 
their mouths, cutting them with flint knives and swallowing 
them without chewing them. These Mansos, then, as they" 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 663 

are at the crossing of this river, are always necessarily met 
with and they are wont to take us to their own ranches so we 
may give food to their women and children, and they also 
occasionally give us something of what they have which is 
fish and mice. They are a v^ell disposed people, well featured 
and stout. Concerning the many times we have preached 
to them they told me, when I passed by them, that they would 
glory in having among them religious persons to teach and 
baptize them ; and such a thing would be of the highest impor- 
tance, for besides the principal object, which is the conver- 
sion of their souls redeemed, by the blood of Our Lord, the 
crossing, too, of these two hundred leagues would be secured, 
and would also be the first step towards converting and 
reducing the other neighboring nations — an object which 
could be gained by stationing there three or four religious 
persons with only fifteen or twenty escort soldiers, whereby 
the other expenses would be avoided which are made so 
great to Your Majesty every time it is necessary to go to 
New Mexico, With this safe guard, many camps of very 
rich mines would be settled, existing all along this road. 
Also grand sites and ranches with water, and parcels of 
very good lands could be established wherewith that road 
would be full of traffic every year and at all times if desired. 
But as it is, on account of lack of security, five and six years 
pass off without we in New Mexico knowing anything about 
the Spanish nation, until the order is sent out for the help of 
the religious and the churches to which Your Majesty always 
attends with such zeal. And, although it is true that it has 
been ordered and determined that such a thing be done 
punctually every three years, five or six years are wont to 
pass off without the Royal Officers remembering us, and God 
alone knows what it costs to implore it. This Manso nation 
is already very well disposed for its conversion, because 
every time we speak to them about God, they hear us with 
much pleasure, and they regret much to have to go and burn 
in hell if they are not baptized; and so they say that they are 
anxious because they have not, as have the other nations, 
religious persons to teach them. I cannot fail to relate what 
happened to me there, and it was that, upon entering into a 
ranching camp of this Manso nation, I placed in it a cross of 



664 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

the size of a lance, and told them, among other things, that 
that cross was the sign of God; that all we Christians had it 
with us, and that we had it in all the towns and houses in 
which we lived; that we asked of it remedy in our necessities, 
sorrows, and infirmities, and by virtue of that Holy Cross, 
we forthwith obtained that remedy; and that, therefore, they 
should have the greatest faith in it: that they should adore 
and touch it in their troubles and afflictions; that if they had 
faith, they would be healed. An edifying spectacle it was to 
see those who then approached the Holy Cross on their knees 
to touch and kiss it, as they had seen me do it, and among 
other things, I saw a female Indian with the tooth ache 
approach it, who with great affection opened her mouth with 
her hands and got her teeth near to the Holy Cross; and 
another one in throes of childbirth approaching the Holy 
Cross tried to get her womb close to it; and, although I had 
there no interpreter through whom I might learn the effect, 
I have great faith in His Divine Majesty that He worked 
there also His marvels in confirmation of his Divine word, 
"iVb?i est vestrum nosce tempora vel momenta quae posuit Deus in 
sua potestate," to let us know when the hour so happy for this 
nation will arrive, and it is a comfort to m.e to see only for the 
present the disposition it evinces. 

Beginning of the Apache Nation. 

"Continuing in the same direction to the North for thirty 
leagues, through the Manso nation, we met the grand 
Apache nation, which are there called the 'Perrillos,' because 
one of them discovered there a pool of water of much im- 
portance in this route; for many leagues were traveled with- 
out water and amid considerable trouble. And so the name 
of Apaches del Perrillo adhered to this province, and about 
them I shall speak afterwards in another place, because it 
is the largest in the world. Though these Apaches are very 
warlike, they can be trusted better than the foregoing 
nations, and we went across their land with less care until 
we reached the Rio del Norte by whose banks the settlements 
of New Mexico commence to be seen in the following 
manners. 



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Proclanxatlon Of Governor Juan BuutLsta Vijil on the eonunK of the American 
Army-See translation in another part of thisboolc. '^'"*^"''^" 



666 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Province and Nation of the Piros, Senecii, Socorro, Sevijleta. 

When this river, on the other hand is reached, the first 
settlement of the Province and Nation of the Piros come in 
sight, vpith many pueblos and adobe houses of from one to 
two stories high, with roads to their towns: they are well 
dressed and with a government, subject to their captains; 
they have large fields sown with all kinds of seeds both of 
their own, as well as of the ones we have carried, together 
with big hunts of game, such as deer, rabbits, hares, and 
many classes offish in the river. The land in this province 
is so fertile, that, whatever is planted in it, is grown in great 
abundance, particularly the pinon (pine nut) which, though 
found generally throughout all that land, is much better in 
this Province than the others, on account of the better tem- 
perature it enjoys. This is the first Province of that king- 
dom and yet it was one of the last to be converted. God was 
pleased that its hour should arrive, and, in the year 1626, 
I being Custodian (superior)of those conversions, I dedicated 
myself to the Lord for the conversion of those souls, conse- 
crating its principal pueblo to the Blessed Virgin of Help 
(Socorro), and so on that first year Our Lord vouchsafed to 
favor me in such a manner that all were baptized and are 
to-day very good Christians. I have founded in this province 
three convents and churches, one, at the Pueblo of Senecu, 
dedicated to Saint Anthony of Padua; another, at the Pueblo 
Pilabo, to the Virgin of Socorro; and another one at Sevilleta 
to Saint Louis, Bishop of my religious order. 

Founding of Sevilleta. 

"It is well that Your Majesty should know the beginning 
of thefoundationof the Pueblo of Sevilleta. It was deserted, on 
account of wars with other nations who burned it, and it was 
our men, the Spaniards, who called it Sevilleta. Its natives 
wandered, scattered among some hills: with these I first 
founded this pueblo again, and I gathered there many others. 
And so, today, it is one of the best pueblos held there by Your 
Majesty. These three convents have, each, under its charge, 
other neighboring pueblos to which the religious attend with 
great care and full of Christian spirit, and, in order to avoid 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 667 

prolixity, I omit here any reference to the dangers, colds, 
calamities and troubles, particular cases, which have been 
my lot in the conversion of this province leaving everything 
to God for whose sake it was done. 

Gold and Silver Mines Are Discovered in Socorro by F. Benavides. 

"It is not with less power that God, Our Lord, has been 
pleased to bestow in this province the temporal gain with 
which Your Majesty may cover the great expenses which, as 
such a Catholic King, you make in the sustenance, both of 
ourselves as of those churches; for the whole of it is full of 
very great treasures of very rich and prosperous mines of 
gold and silver; a boon which we every day and with good 
wishes, as most affectionate chaplains and vassals, prayed to 
God for, and through the diligence of an intelligent person 
we came to discover them (for which we give Him infinite 
thanks in the name of Your Majesty j particularly the hillock 
of the Pueblo of Socorro, chief and head of this province of 
the Piros; for the whole of it consists of very prosperous 
minerals which extend, from north to south, for over fifty 
leagues; and, on account of the lack of some one who under- 
stands the business, and may invest in its development, the 
greatest riches in the world are not enjoyed and Your 
Majesty loses your royal fifths. The facility for drawing the 
silver out of this hillock is the greatest and best in all the 
Indies, and it would be worth more to draw here one mark of 
silver, than to take out many such marks in the others; for 
the reason that, in the others, it is necessary to convey the 
materials and provisions from quite a far — even the water — 
and these expenses absorb all the silver that is taken out; 
but in this mines at Socorro everything is at hand, and, 
though it is truethat atthe start of the conversion, the Indians 
would flee from the work of the mines, I am satisfied, that, 
if persons of moderate greed should administer them, should 
treat the Indians well, and would pay them for their work, 
being satisfied at the beginning, with their simple and slack 
capacity for work, they would not only not cause them to run 
away, but would win them over by these means, and they (the 
Indians) would submit to our treatment and communication; 
and they themselves, seeing that they were not ill-treated, 



668 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

and that their work was paid to them, would come and offer 
themselves to do it. By such proceedings it would be easier 
for us ministers to reduce them to peace. I, however, resolved 
to take out a quantity of the metals from different veins of 
those mines, and I gave them to some miners of New Spain, 
who, upon making assays upon them and noticing such a 
great wealth, they were getting ready to go into New Mexico 
with men in order to develop them; and the viceroy was left 
making great assays, full of zeal for the service of Your 
Majesty, so as to increase in those parts your royal fifths. 

Schools are Established. 

"This Province of the Piros extends along the Rio del Norte 
above, from the first pueblo of San Antonio de Senecii, to the 
last one, St. Louis of Sevilleta, for 15 leagues, where there 
are fourteen pueblos on each side of the river whose popula- 
tion must be six thousand souls, all baptized, with three con- 
vents as already said in which the religious, in addition to 
the teaching and doctrine of our Holy Catholic faith, teach 
them also how to sing, read and write and all other occupa- 
tions, and to live courteously in their schools. 

The Tioas (Tiguex) Nation — Reading, Writing, Music and the Arts are 
Taught. 

•'By ascending the river for seven leagues, we come to the 
nation of the Tioas (Tiguex) consisting of 15 or 16 pueblos, 
where there may be probably seven thousand souls, in a 
district of 12 or 13 leagues, all of them baptized, having two 
convents, which are that of San Francisco de Sandia, and 
that of San Antonio of la Isleta, in which there are schools 
for reading, writing, singing, and of playing on all kinds of 
instruments of music. They are well indoctrinated and have 
a smack of political hfe. These convents are very costly and 
curious, due to the solicitude and Christian spirit of their 
founders, and all the other pueblos have also very curious 
churches. 

The Queres Nation. 

"By advancing four leagues further ahead, the Queres 
nation commences, with it first Pueblo of San Felipe, and 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 669 

it stretches out for over ten leagues into seven pueblos. 
There are probably in them about four thousand souls, 
all baptized, with three very costly and carious chuches and 
convents, besides the ones each pueblo has. These Indians 
are very skillful in reading, writing and music in all instru- 
ments, and are masters in all occupations, through the great 
industry of the religious person who converted them. It is 
also a very fertile land yeilding of everything planted in it. 

The Tompiras Nation (Ghi'ili). 

"Leaving aside the Rio del Norte and withdrawing from 
the foregoing nation (Tiguex) for ten leagues to the east, 
comes the Tompira nation, by its first pueblo of Chilili and 
it extends in that section for fifteen leagues, with fourteen 
or fifteen pueblos, having a probable population of more 
than ten thousand souls with six very good convents and 
churches, all converted and the larger portion baptized, and 
others who are being instructed and taught, and their 
schools in all arts as the others— a land not very productive, 
due to the cold climate and lack of waters. In this province 
there are large salt deposits, at ten leagues from the mines 
of Socorro. I cannot leave here unrelated a saying of the 
devil, through the mouth of an Indian wizard, who became 
convinced by the word of God, when I commenced the con- 
version of the great pueblo of the Xumamas, which I dedi- 
cated to the glorious St. Isidrus, Archbishop of Seville, on 
account of my having made the conversion on his feast day, 
that all the pueblo being convinced, and being determined, 
through the weight of my reasons, to become Christians, the 
wizard became quite angry and said in loud tones of voice: 
'You, the Spaniards and Christians, are crazy, and as you 
live like demented men, desire to teach us to become so our- 
selves, too.' I asked him in what were we crazy, for he must 
have seen some disciplinary procession of holy week in some 
pueblo of Christians, and he replied thus: 'You Christians 
are so crazy that you altogether go along lashing yourselves 
like madmen, through the streets, shedding blood, and so 
you may wish also that this pueblo become mad too." And 
having said this, he left the pueblo very angry, vociferating, 
and saying that he didn't want to be crazy himself, a circum- 



670 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

stance which caused them all to remain laughing, and we 
much more so at knowing and persuading myself that it was 
the devil that was running away in a confused manner at the 
power of the divine word. 

The Tanos Nation (Galisteo) 

"Turning again to the north for ten more leagues, we met 
with the first and chief pueblo of the Tanos nation, which 
stretches out for ten leagues into five pueblos with probably 
four thousand baptized souls, having a very good convent 
andchui^ch; and the other pueblos, also, have one in which 
mass is said to them by priests from the convent, - There 
are here schools for all trades, as in the other nations. 

The Pecos Nation. 

"Likewise to the north, about four leagues more, the 
pueblo of the Pecos is met with, which has more than two 
thousand souls, and where there is a very splendid convent 
and temple, of a special make and curiosity in which one 
religious did much work and with great care; and, although 
these Indians are of the Jemes nation, they are reputed as 
a separate nation, because of their isolation and separation 
from their territory, even though their language is the 
same. It is a very cold and unproductive land, yet it gives 
the necessary corn for its inhabitants, for they plant a great 
deal. These Indians are very well versed in all the occupa- 
tions, and have their reading, writing and music schools, as 
the others. 

The Villa of Santa Fe — Churches and Convent are Built by Father 
Benavides — Also Schools. 

"Returning from the foregoing Pueblo towards the west 
for 7 leagues, is situated the Villa of Santa F^, Capital of the 
kingdom, where the governor and the Spaniards reside who 
are perhaps, two hundred and fifty, only tifty of whom can 
be armed, on account of the lack of arms. Yet though few 
and ill-provided, God has permitted them to come out always 
with victory on their side, and they have infused such dread 
on the Indians by means of their arquebuses, that on 
hearing of the approach of a Spaniard to their pueblos, they 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 671 

run away; and, in order to preserve in them this dread, the 
Spaniards employ great rigor in treating them, when it 
becomes necessary to chastise a rebellious pueblo; for were 
it not for this, they could on many an occasion have tried 
to kill the Spaniards, seeing them so far away from New 
Spain, whence some help might come to them. They 
are all soldiers well indoctrinated, humble, and the greater 
part of them, are a good example for the Indians. Your 
Majesty sustains this fortress, not by payments from the 
Royal exchequer, but by making them pensioners of 
those pueblos through the power of the governor; the 
tribute the Indians give them is one manta; and one 
fanega of corn a year by each house, (a manta being a 
yard of cotton cloth) with which the poor Spaniards feed 
themselves. There are about seven hundred souls as 
servants, so that in Spaniards, Mestizoes, and Indians there 
may perhaps be about one thousand souls, all so punctual 
in their obedience to their governors, that they go out on 
any occasion that is demanded of them, with their arms 
and horses at their own expense, and they perform deeds 
of valor. It only lacked the 'principal thing and that was the 
church, as the one they (the Spaniards) had was a poor 
shanty, for the religious first attended the construction of 
the churches for the Indians whom they converted and with 
whom they dwelt and lived; and so, as soon as I was named 
Custodian, I commenced to build the church and convent and 
for the honor and glory of God, of our Lord, it can reflect 
splendor in any part where the religious persons teach 
Spaniards and Indians reading, writing, music and singing 
and all the arts of gentility. Although cold, it is the most 
fertile place in New Mexico.* 

* The church Father Benavides claims to have built in Santa Fe 
for the Spaniards must have been built between 1628 and 1629, as he 
came to New Mexico in 1626 and in 1630 read the foreg-oing- report 
before the King- in Spain. It is reasonable to believe that said church 
was the one now in ruins immediately east of northof the old"Garita'' 
(Custom-house) nortli of the city of Santa Fe, the cliurch of San 
Mig-uel having- already been built, prior to Father Benavides" time 
(ante). It could not have been the old cathedral for I have in my 
possession an official document wliich is a report made by Civil Engi- 
neer Don Ig-nacio Sanchez Verg-ara to the governor of New Mexico in 



672 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Teoas Nation. 

"Proceeding further to the west, towards the Rio del Norte, 
which we had left, we find the Teoas nation. This province 
extends over a space of eleven or twelve leagues with eight 
pueblos which contain about six thousand souls. This nation 
was the tirst one in this Kingdom to accept baptism, about 
which act they boast themselves a good deal. They are very 
friendly to the Spaniards whom they serve generally, and 
whom they accompany in all their wars. It has three con- 
vents and churches made very curiously, particularly that of 
St. Ildefonso in which a great deal of care was bestowed by 
the religious person who founded it; and all the pueblos have 
their cliurches where they are given mass, and they 
are very well learned in all the arts. It is a very fer- 
tile land due to the efforts of a religious in procuring for 
it water for the irrigation of its plantations. The Kio del 
Norte which passes by it, abounds in large quantities of fish. 

The Jemes Nation. 

"Crossing this river to the w^estern part, at a distance of 
seven leagues, the Jemes nation is reached. When I entered 
as custodian, this nation had scattered itself throughout this 
entire kingdom, and was almost deserted on account of 
hunger and wars which were destroying it. Most of them 
were already baptized, and had their churches, at the cost of 
much labor and care of some religious persons; I, therefore, 
endeavored to reduce and bring it together in the same pro- 
vince, and placed a religious who carefully attended to the 
work; and we have gathered it in two pueblos, which are that 
of San Jose, still standing, with a very sumptuous and curious 
church and convent, and that of San Diego, of the congrega- 
tion, which we founded again for this purpose, by bringing 
back there the Indians who had been left of that nation, and 
who wandered, all scattered about, and also by giving them 
houses ready made, together with their sustenance for some 
days, as well as plowed lands for their plantations: for, in 

March, 1814, by which Verg-ara gives a detailed description of the 
cathedra], from which fact I am inclined to believe that the old cathe- 
dral had just been built. — The Author. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 673 

order to cover these and other expenses for the sake of 
charity, we, the rehgious, are wont to exchange even the cloth 
which Your Majesty gives us as alms for our raiments; and 
so that congregation is today one of the best pueblos of the 
Indies with its church, its convent and its schools in all arts, 
as in the others; and, although more than half of this nation 
has died, nevertheless. Your Majesty has there more than 
three thousand congregated tributaries. 

This Picuris Nation. 

Turning now back to the Tioas nation whence we started 
out to go to the Jemes, and going up the river to the north 
for ten leagues, we arrived at the Pueblo of Picuris, which 
has about two thousand souls, already baptized, with their 
convent and church where they are well instructed and 
taught; it has the most indomitable and treacherous people 
in that kingdom and some religious men have suffered a good 
deal at their hands, so far as to receive violence and be ill- 
treated; because these Indians hate our holy Catholic faith 
from w4iich so much good results to them, and they have 
attempted to kill the priest whom they now have, and whom 
Our Lord has miraculously rescued from them; as when they 
have gone out to intercept and kill him on the roads, they 
have been covered by a cold sweat, and trembled from dread 
in his presence. On another occasion when they were about 
to lay hands on him, he became invisible to them, and they 
had to turn back in confusion. But, today, God be blessed, 
they are very pacific and well instructed; and although these 
Indians belong to the Tioas (Tiguez) nation, they are reckoned 
by themselves as a separate nation because of their being 
so far apart from the Tiguex nation. Their land is very 
fertile and it yields fruit in a very short time in great plenty. 
The water of its rivers is very good, and they abound in 
trout. They have also mines of very fine garnets, but no 
one cares to elaborate them. 

The Taos Nation. 

"Further ahead m the same northern direction, lies, at 
about seven leagues, the Pueblo of Taos, of the same nation 
as the foregoing, though somewhat different in language. 



674 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

It has two thousand five hundred baptized souls, with their 
convent and church which have been founded with great 
care by the rehgious persons who have had their conversion 
in their charge. These Indians are ver}' well indoctrinated, 
and last year, 1627, Our Lord contirmed his holy word 
among them by means of a miracle. That it was quite 
difficult for them to abandon their custom of having many 
wives, as was their wont, before receiving baptism. Every 
day the religious person preached to them about the truth 
of the Holy Sacrament of marriage, and the person who 
mostly contradicted this was an old witch, who, under the 
pretext of going! for wood to the country, took out four 
other good Christian women, married according to the rites 
of our Holy Mother, the church, and, in going and coming 
back, tried to persuade them not to consent to marry after 
the manner in which the priest taught; that it was better to 
do it, according to the custom of their own people, a thing 
which they, as good Christians, always resisted. As they were 
approaching the pueblo, and the witch still persisting in her 
talk, the sky being clear and serene, a bolt of lightning fell 
and killed that infernal minister of the demon in the midst 
of the good Christians who resisted her evil doctrine, they 
remaining entirely free from the effect of the lightning, and 
very well confirmed in the truth of the Holy Sacrament of 
marriage. The people at once hastened to the scene, and 
seeing the stroke of heaven, all those who were living inces- 
tuously in secret, were married and very earnestly believed 
everthing the priest taught them. He, thereupon, preached 
right there a sermon to them on the occurrence, and every 
feast-day he also preached to them, as is the custom in the 
other convents. Glory be to God Our Lord. The land is 
very cold, and abounds very much in live stock. 

The Roci? of Acoma. 

"Retracing our steps to the Queres nation, and starting 
from Santa Ana, its last pueblo westward for about 12 leagues, 
the Rock (Penol) of Acoma is reached, which has cost so 
many Spanish and friendly Indian lives, both because it is 
a wall of tiled and inexpugnable rock, as well as on account 
of the valor of its inhabitants who number about two 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 675 

thousand souls. And it pleased God that, last year, 1629, 
we reduced them to peace; and today they have a religious 
who is catechizing and baptizing them; and the Lord has 
contirmed by a miracle the power of this sacrament of 
baptism, and that miracle was, that while an infant was in 
its mother's arms in the last gasps of death, she weeping 
over it as if dead, the religious who was there teaching them 
told her, if she loved her child so much, to allow it to be 
baptized, that it might go to enjoy eternal glory in heaven if 
it died; and the mother believed the priest, and requested 
him to baptize the child to which the priest answered: Well 
my daughter, have faith, for this holy water of baptism has 
power to bring your daughter to life again. And pouring 
the water over it saying the words, it was a wonderful thing 
to see that at the instant it got up well and sound, and made 
for its mother's breast. Then turning to the priest in 
smiles and caresses, it showed, by gestures, since it could 
not speak, its gratitude for the good he had done for it; 
wherewith all those Indians were very well confirmed in the 
faith, and they learned quickly to pray so they might be 
baptized. God be blessed for all. 

The Zuni Nation. 

"Proceeding further westward, for thirty leagues, the 
Province of Zuni is reached, where there are eleven or twelve 
pueblos in a district embracing nine or ten leagues, contain- 
ing more than 10,000 converted souls, who are being cate- 
chized and baptized. They have two convents and churches 
in which the religious dwelling there have undergone and 
are undergoing, many troubles and hardships, on account of 
the great repugnance the wizards bear to them, but, as God 
is ever present over all things, the religious always win the 
victory, and our Lord has worked there many particular 
things which may be seen in the information of everything 
above said, to which I refer. The land is very abundant in 
all kinds of provisions. 

The Moqui Nation. 

"Pushing forward in the same western direction for 
another thirty leagues, the Province of Moqui is reached. 



676 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



being of about the same extent as the preceding Zuni, con- 
taining a population of another ten thousand souls, which 
are also being catechized and baptized, and which baptism 
and divine word the Lord has confirmed with the following 
miracle to-wit: It is customary among all the infidel Indians 
to receive the religious at first very well in their pueblos^ 





Kev. James H. Defouri. 

First Pastor of the Church of Guadalupe, Santa Fe; 

AVriter and Author of several works 

of History and Religion. 



and to submit at once to baptism; and, on seeing, when they 
are catechized, that they must abandon their idolatries and 
witcheries, the wizards regret that so much that they make 
them all restless and divert them from the truth, that they 
may not become Christians; and not only this, but they drive 
the religious out, when they cannot have him killed. So it 
happened in the main pueblo of this Moqui Province; they 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 677 

received very well the priest who went to convert them, 
and his companions, together with some soldiers who were 
there with them, as an escort; and seeing that the religious, 
with an original cross of Mother Luisa of Carrion compelled 
them, with cheers and efficacious reasons, to adore one only- 
God, Lord and Creator of all things, and who, for our re- 
demption, had died on a cross like that, which it was their 
duty to adore, and not their idols wherewith the devil held 
them deceived; the wizards angered at this, and, seeing 
that the jurisdiction they had, as ministers of hell, over 
those souls, was being taken away from them, they succeeded 
in persuading all the people that the religious and all those 
who accompanied him were liars and were going to deceive 
them, and that they should kill him forthwith; and, desiring 
to carry their project into effect, on some occasions, they 
durst not, on account of the watchfulness of the soldiers, but 
chiefly through the protection of heaven. After this, a 
crowd of them came, bringing a boy of from twelve to thir- 
teen years of age, who had been blind 'a nativitate' and w^as 
born with his ej^es sealed, without any suspicion that he 
might be able to see, and told the religious these words: 

" 'You must be a great liar, and so, if all what you say about 
that which you call cross is the truth, place it over the eyes 
of this boy, and, if by that means, he should open them, w'e 
will confess that all you preach to us is the truth; but, 
if he should not, we shall have you killed or driven out in 
confusion.' The religious having seen this, fell on his knees 
with that affection and devotion which might be imagined in 
a similar case, and, with the same cross in his hands, his eyes 
raised to heaven, implored the Divine Majesty that, for the 
confusion, of those savage infldels, and to the end that they 
should adore His most holy name and cross, he should work 
therewith his wonders. He then stood up and placed it with 
the utmost faith over the eyes of the blind boy, and imme- 
diately, at the very instant, he opened them and began to 
utter loud voices in admiration of his being able to see; 
wherewith they took the boy in their arms, carried him 
through the streets and squares, proclaiming in loud voices 
the miracle, and that all should become Christians and be 
baptized and do whatever the priest taught them, for it was 



678 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

the truth; and that their wizards were all liars who deceived 
them. And so they at once submitted to what the priest and 
his companions taught them so as to be baptized, and held 
them in great love and respect. Sit nomen Domini benedictum. 
And, although in the preceding conversions Our Lord has 
worked many a wonder, I have now refrained from mention- 
ing them, referring only to the general history of that land, 
which with heaven's favor I am writing; and I have wished to 
relate the said miracles to Your Majesty, because our Lord 
worked them all last year, 1629, after Your Majesty was 
vouchsafed to provide for us more ministers. 

Rites of These Gentiles. 

"These are the towns which we have converted and bap- 
tized in that part of what we call New Mexico. They all, 
from the first pueblo of the province of the Piros, San Anto- 
nio, Senecii, the Rio del Norte above, up to the Pueblo of San 
Ger6nimo of the Taos, lying in a district of one hundred 
leagues, said pueblo being on either side of the river, and 
some of them somewhat separated by other creeks at a dis- 
tance of seven or eight leagues, — they all must have afoot 
80,000 souls. All these people and nations were divided, as 
to their gentilism, in two portions, warriors and wizards; the 
warriors endeavoring to reduce to their command and empire 
all the people, as opposed to the wizards; and the wizards, with 
like opposition, tried to persuade the people to believe that 
they caused the rains and made the earth give good crops and 
other things the warriors jeered at; wherefore there always 
were continual civil wars among them, so fierce that 
they killed themselves mutually, and desolated the pueb- 
los entirely, wherein the devil reaped his ordinary harvest. 
Their religion though not a formal idolatry, was almost 
such; because for whatever action they did they offered 
something; as, for example, at the time they were about 
to go fighting, they offered meal and other things to the 
scalps of those whom they had killed of the enemy. When 
they go to hunt they offer as a sacrifice meal to the heads of 
deer, hares, rabbits and other dead animals; if they go 
fishing they offer something to the river. Women who 
desire to attract men, go out to the country plump and 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 679 

healthy, and raise a stone or small post upon some hillock, and 
there offer to it some meal, and during eight days they eat 
nothing but what might unsettle their stomachs and provoke 
them to vomit; they scourged themselves cruelly and when 
they are unable to do anything else, and their plumpness 
has turned into thinness and they look like 'shadows 
black from hell" they come back quite confident that the 
first man they meet will covet them and give them mantas, 
the acquisition of which is their principal aim. But this 
worship is not in the least reverential, because they are 
permitted to be trodden or spit upon, and are simply used 
as a ceremony. In order to make one of the Indians captain 
they are wont to gather in a town, where they tie the candi- 
date naked to a pillar and with certain thistle whips they all 
scourge him; afterwards he is entertained with comedies and 
other plays and if he stands the ordeal unruffled and without 
crying, made no grimaces at the one, nor laughed at the other, 
he is proclaimed a very brave captain. Thus the devil keeps 
them alw^aj^s deceived with a thousand sorts of supersti- 
tions. They have always been a people with some govern- 
ment or community; the elders gather with the great captain 
to confer and discuss the things that concern them, and 
after determining what is to be done the great captain goes 
out through the pueblo proclaiming personally what is com- 
manded to be obeyed. This is practiced even today and is 
considered as an act of great authority for the great captains 
to proclaim what must be done in the pueblo. 

How Well They Attend to the Things of Christianity — Turquoise Mines. 

"Today, be it said to the honor and glory of God, our Lord, 
that with the tender care we, the religious, have taken of 
them, they are so well indoctrinated, that, at the ringing of 
the bell for mass and doctrine, they all come neatly arranged, 
and enter the church to pray, as is done by old Christians; 
and the boys and girls who always come to doctrine in the 
morning and in the evening, hasten there with the greatest 
care and without failing. The singers, who take turn every 
week in the chapels, sing every day in the church at the reg- 
ular hours, at first mass, high mass and vespers, with punc- 
tuality. All of them confess themselves in their own Ian- 



680 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO, 

guage, and prepare for confession by examining their sins, 
and by bringing them marked on a string by means of knots, 
and thus always submit them to the religious, with remark- 
able affection. Scarcely one among them is taken ill, when 
he at once comes to the religious, or sends someone to call 
him, imagining that by simply seeing him, he will be healed, 
and if the disease advances he confesses in order to die well. 
This is the constant task of the religious, to cure their 
diseases and supply all their needs. And so they, as well as 
the things of the church, are held by them in remarkable affec- 
tion; they hasten to the church with remarkable attachment 
and devotion, as all the churches and convents which they 
have built abundantly testify, all of which, though it may 
seem exaggeration to say it, they are very sumptuous and 
curious, having been constructed by the women and the 
boys who attend Christian doctrine; for among these nations 
it is customary for the women to build the houses and the 
men spin and weave their mantas and go to war and the 
hunt; and if we put a man to build a wall he is ashamed of it, 
and the women laugh at him. By these means more than 
fifty churches have been built with very curious roofs, en- 
gravings and Haceria' (lacework) and the walls very well 
painted, for there are wonderful mountains abounding in all 
sorts of woods and due to the care we, the religious, have 
taken of teaching other things to the Indians attending 
Christian doctrine, there are many good adepts in car- 
pentery and all the other arts, hence today they are so well 
versed in everything, particularly in matters of faith and 
Christianity; it is admirable to see that, in less than twenty 
years since the administration of baptism began, and 
especially in the last eight years, during which the harvest 
of souls has been more abundant, they look like Christians 
of a hundred years. As we pass along the roads and they hap- 
pen to see us from their pueblos or plantations, they all come 
out to receive us with very great joy, saying: 'Praised be 
our Lord Jesus Christ; praised be the Most Holy Sacrament," 
and when we arrive at their pueblos they receive us with 
bouquets and treat us to fish, or to whatever they have: and 
the captain of the pueblo bids us welcome and hails us with 
congratulations, that we, as priests of God, may honor their 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 681 

pueblos, where they were living as savages. They all dress 
in cotton and skins, and, after their own fashion, endeavor 
to bedeck themselves with turquoise necklaces and earrings. 
For they have mine? of these stones and they shape them, 
though imperfectly, and the women dress themselves in cot- 
ton mantas painted, and embroidered with the same ma- 
terial. 

What That Kingdom Owes to Your Majesty. 

"This land, then, having, with its inhabitants, been sub- 
ject to the devil, as his slaves, until this time, and the whole 
of it been filled with caverns of idoltry where the Most Holj^ 
name of Jesus was not only never adored, but not even 
known, nor was his Most Holy Cross known, has been 
turned, in these few years, into a land tilled with churches 
and cross pedestals, and its dwellers today salute themselves 
in loud tones by praising the Most Holy sacrament of the 
altar, and the Most Holy name of Jesus Christ; and, on the 
peal of the bells for the Ave Maria they fall on their knees, 
wherever those peals reached them and amid acclamations 
adore the Most Holy Virgin saying in a loud voice the three 
customary 'Hail Maries': and in like manner when they hear 
the peal for the souls in purgatory, saying an Our Father 
and Hail Mary; a land, in w^hich the devil seemed to contam- 
inate the air rendering it uninhabitable is today, so changed 
and peaceful as to carry uncovered the Most Holy sacrament 
in processions; and that, in order to cause this change and 
mutation, God should have chosen as his ministers us poor 
sons of ray Father Saint Francis; the whole thing looks as 
though, 'comteinjjtibia elegit Deus ut confimdat Jortia/ 
Although it is clearly and evidently seen that God is the 
author, and first cause, for which we give him thanks, we 
owe them to Your Majesty as well; for, without your royal 
support we could not have been able to stand so many 
expenses; and Your Majesty should be justly proud of being 
the cause of all this change and o£ enjoying all the merit of 
those conversions, whereby we rescued thousands of souls 
from the claws of the devil, a thing which could not have 
been done without a miracle; and God left it and remitted it 
to Your Majesty, that, through such Catholic means, and out 



682 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

of your royal treasury you should enjoy such great results, 
spiritually and temporally: and we taught all the Indians 
ever to commend Your Majesty to God, who as, at the 
cost of so many expenses, you send and sustain there min- 
isters and churches for the salvation of their souls. And we, 
the religious, as your devoted and obliged vassals and chap- 
lains, never fail at mass, as in our private prayers, to pray 
for Your Majesty in that far off Kingdom of yours and in 
that primitive church where Our Lord performs so many 
wonders. In all and by all, all honor and glory to God Our 
Lord. 

Fertility of the Land. 

"All this land is very productive, and yields in great abun- 
dance all that is sown in it; corn, wheat, beans, lentils, chic- 
peas, vetches, peas, pumpkins, water and musk-melons, 
cucumbers — all sorts of vegetables; cabbages, lettuce, car- 
rots, garlics, onions, Indian figs, pitajaie cactus, 'carpos,' 
very good plums, apricots, peaches, nutmegs, acorns, black- 
berries and many other cereals which I omit, in order to 
avoid prolixity; I will, however mention separately the pinon 
(pine) trees which are of a different species from those of 
Spain, because they are larger and easy to break, and the 
trees and pine fruit (pinon) are small. The quantity is so 
great, that it seems inexhaustible, and is so much esteemed, 
that the fanega is worth from $23 to $24, and those who sell 
it again make a profit on them. And the land is so fertile that 
from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and thirty 
fanegas of wheat have been known to be raised from one 
fanega of seed planted, and it has happened that goodly 
harvests have been raised from the stubble, without the 
latter having received any further benefit than a little 
irrigation. 

Fish. 

"It has also many rivers which contain an abundance 
of fish, and large marshes, and especially the Rio del Norte, 
whose water when low, and when it can be forded, reaches 
up to the saddle; and when it is swollen it has a rapid and 
strong current, on account of the water which it receives 
from the melted snows alone. And the same is true of the 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 683 

other rivulets that join it, all of which are very abundant in 
bagres, trouts, sardines, eels, needlefish, 'matalotas boqui- 
netes,' topes and many others. 

Game or Hunt. 

"The abundance of game seems infinite. There are deer 
of many different species, and some like large mules have 
their tails like a mule's and others, as large as these, although 
their tail is like that of the other deer, but so hairy as to 
seem a Moorish shield upon their haunches, and they are so 
large and strong, that the master of the camp had hitched to 
his carriage, through vanity, two of these deer which had 
been tamed since they were young; and they pulled with so 
much briskness, that it was necessary to hitch to their 
sides very slow mules to check them. There are many other 
smaller ones, from which the Indians get their nourishment 
and living, and from their skins they make and tan such 
good leathers that they sell them in Mexico for five and six 
dollars. Rabbits and hares are innumerable; there are also 
very many foxes, wolves, mountain lions, wild cats and bears. 
There is a species of mountain sheep, very large, with thick 
horns, which can scale, at full speed, any rock or wall, how- 
ever smooth or high, as if it was a ladder; and when prancing 
and running away they are wont to jump down from very 
high precipices, landing at the bottom on their horns and at 
once rise with such celerity as if they had done nothing. 
And that kingdom abounds in all kinds of animals, and in 
the same way the live stock we have taken there from New 
Spain has propagated very much, for there was nothing 
there of this sort, such as cattle and sheep for ordinarily the 
ewes give triplets: hairy stock such as mules and famed 
horses, particularly those used in the army. And it is a very 
ordinary sight to see the Indians go on a general hunting: 
for, from four to five thousand of them get together and go 
along eyeing all the hillocks, and surrounding them in such a 
manner, that the game may meet the huntsmen from every 
side when it attempts to run away; and thus they keep on 
closing the round up in such a way that in a short time they 
have all the chase gathered together, in which, animals of 
every species are seen. Those who do the killing enter within 



'684 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

the enclosure, and those from the outside guard the same 
and whatever is killed is then distributed, though the cap- 
tains have the advantage. 

Rigor of the Temperature. 

"The temperature is by extremes; for the winter is very 
rigorous, and there is so much snow, ice and cold, that all 
the rivers, marshes and even the Rio del Norte freeze in such 
a manner, that loaded wagons can pass over the ice, and at 
full speed large flocks of stock cross over it as if it was 
over land on very firm ground. It is then that we, the relig- 
ious, have a great deal of trouble to cross these rivers to the 
ministering of the pueblos, for, as the rivers are closed with 
ice, they are on the surface like a crystal mirror, so slippery 
that on horseback or afoot we fall many times; and, as the 
remedy for this is to throw earth on the surface so that the 
feet may step firmly, we cannot get the earth because the 
ground is so frozen, that it is necessary in order to dig a 
grave in the church-yard, first to build a fire over it so as to 
unfreeze the ground, for it cannot be dug by means of bars. 
And suffice it to say that, when we are saying mass, we place 
two tire-pans one on each side of the chalice, and yet with 
all this, and the heat of the multitude of people who come to 
the church the wine freezes; and so every winter many 
Indians are frozen in the country, and many Spaniards too 
get their ears, feet and hands frozen; and on the contrary, 
the heat in summer is more unbearable than the cold is in 
winter. Thus it appears that sometimes the breathing fails 
in some provinces more than in others. 

Grand Apache Nation — (Known Today as Navajoes). 

"What has been said will be sufficient in order that the 
nature of the pueblos of New Mexico may be understood 
which lie on both sides of the Rio del Norte in a district com- 
prising one hundred leagues on either side of said river, all 
of which are surrounded on all parts by the grand Apache 
nation. For, without any exaggeration, it alone has more peo- 
ple than all the other nations of New Spain combined, even if 
the Mexican nation enters into the calculation. It is a very 
brisk and warlike nation, and very fiery in war. Even in 



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686 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. \ 

their manner of speaking they show their unhkeness to the 
other nations, for these talk in low tones and slowly, while 
the Apache seem to wreck their hearers with their w'ord. 
They do not live in towns nor houses, but in tents and ranch- 
ing camps, wherefore they change from mountains to moun- 
tains in pursuitof game, which is their nocirishment, although 
each main and proper ranching camp has its designated ter- 
ritory in which they plant corn and other seeds. They are 
dressed in chamois dresses which are the skins of deer, very 
well tanned and brilliant, after their fashion, and their women 
dress gallantly and decently. They have no idolatry except 
that of the sun, and even that, is not general in all, and they 
laugh to scorn all the nations that have idols. It is their 
custom to have as many wives as they can support, and the 
wife that is caught in adultery is irremissibly executed by 
cutting off her ears and repudiating her. They are very 
obedient to their elders and hold them in great respect. They 
teach and chastise their children, in contrast with the other 
nations which have no such punishments. They pride them- 
selves highly for speaking the truth, and the one among them 
caught in a lie is held in disgrace. Although, because of its 
being one nation, their language is also one, yet, as it is so 
widely spread, it (the language) fails not to vary somewhat in 
some of the ranching camps, but not in anything that cannot 
be very well understood. Commencing then from its start, 
when we go to New Mexico, that is, from the province of the 
Perrillo Apaches, it runs from this portion of the west as far 
as the south sea, to where there is more than three hundred 
leagues, and it keeps on continuously to the north without 
any limit that wp have yet found to it in that direction, and 
meets with the Strait of Anian; and, making with this nation, 
the circuit of New Mexico, it expands for more than a hun- 
dred leagues, until it again touches the province of Perrillo, 
making in this more than three hundred leagues in circum- 
ference over the frontiers of New Mexico. It is all such a 
warlike nation that it has been the crucible of Spanish effort, 
and for this reason they esteem them very highly and say, 
that only the Spaniards are worthy of the title of people, and 
not the nations of the Indian settlements. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



68i 



Beginning of the Conversion of the Apaches. 

"I began the conversion of this Apache nation on the 
northern side in the ranching camps of Captain Quinia, well 
known for his warlike nature, by planting there the first 
crosses; and the same being continued by one religious, 




Santa Fe in 1867. (1) Santa Fe's Old Cathedral-(2) Stone Arch of New Cathedral 

in process of construction— (3) Simon Delgado's Store and Residence, on 

which site was the old Spanish Military Church— (4) Spiegelberg 

Block— (.5) Seligman's Store— (6) Exchange Hotel— (7) Lamy Corner. 

they rebelled, after Captain Quinia, his wife and children 
had been baptized, and attempted to kill the priest who 
was catechizing them. With their arrows already pointed 
at him, they however did not dare to do it, but ran away 
from the ranching camp leaving the Father, who abandoned 
them on that occasion. But they again became peaceful, for 
this always happens in the beginning of all the conversions. 



688 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Conversion of the Xila Apaches and Remarkable Hieroglyphic of an 
Apache Captain. 

"Coming again to the beginning of this Apache nation, the 
nearest to the Province of Perrillo is that of the Xila Apaches, 
fourteen leagues from the Pueblo of San Antonio de Senecii, 
of the Province of the Piros. Our Lord deigned that its 
Captain Major, named Sanaba, should be converted, because, 
he had heard me preach many a time at Senecii where he 
ordinarily attended. And he of his own motive preached 
to those of his ranching camps and so the one in which he 
lived was converted; and, by degrees, he went on converting 
the others that are subject to him, and so we have there 
today already a religious Indian who is catechizing and 
settling them. 

"I cannot but mention on this occasion two particular 
cases which happened to me in their conversion wherein 
Your Majesty will notice what happens there. One was: 
That while I was going to this Pueblo of Xila in order to 
catechize them, their Captain Sanaba learned about it, and 
came to receive me fourteen leagues, at the Pueblo of San 
Antonio de Senecu, and after I had treated him with what 1 
was able to, he commanded a servant to untie a small bundle he 
had along and he drew out of it a folded deerskin, which is a 
tissue of deer well dressed, and presented it to me. I being 
ignorant of what it contained and persuaded that he simply 
presented it to me, I told him that he already knew why I 
did not care that they should give me anything; that the 
only thing I desire from them was that from their whole hearts 
they should adore the Lord of Heaven and earth. But he 
laughing, told me to unroll the skin and see what was within. 
I did so, and I observed in it that it was very white and 
large, in its center was painted a sun in green color with a 
cross over it, and under the sun, the moon was also painted in 
gray color with another cross over it. And, although some- 
thing of what it meant flashed across my mind, I inquired 
from him the meaning of that painting. He answered thus: 
Father, until now we had not known any other benefactor as 
great as the sun and the moon; because the sun warms and 
lights up by day, and breeds up our plants, and the moon. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO, 689 

gives US light at night, and so we adored these two objects 
as the being that did us so much good, and we did not know 
there was anything better. But now that you have taught 
us that God is the Lord and Creator of the sun and moon and 
of all things, and that the Cross is the sign of God, I have 
ordered the Cross painted upon the sun and the moon that 
you may understand that we do the things you teach us, 
and we do not forget that above all things we adore God and 
his Holy Cross, God be praised and blessed for all. He alone, 
who has dealt with conversions, knows the spiritual joy a 
religious person receives when, on such occasions, he sees 
the purpose of his work accomplished with abundant fruit, 
and considers the dangers he has passed as well employed. 
At the same time the naturally discursive talent, with which 
God has endowed this nation, will be very well understood, 
for I know not what better reasons could the old natural 
philosophers give, in our opinion, to persuade themselves into 
the adoration of our true and universal Creator, Redeemer 
and Lord. 

Conversion of the Navajoe Apaches. 

"Leaving, then, this province of the Xila Apaches, and 
going ahead in the same direction, that is, by the west side 
of the settlements, along the boundary line for more than 
fifty leagues, we meet with the province of the Navajoe 
Apaches, who though being of the same Apache nation, as 
the foregoing, they are subjected and subordinated to another 
Major Captain, and have a distinct way of living; for the 
former did not plant, but lived from the chase, and we have 
broken to-day lands for them and taught them how to plant; 
while the latter, of Navajoe, are very extensive farmers, for 
that is what ^Navajoe,'' signifies — large plantations. This pro- 
vince is the most warlike of all the Apache nation, and where 
the Spaniards have shown well their courage. 

"This mountain chain runs for a distance of another fifty 
leagues which are all filled with the mineral, salt petre. 
And as all these settled and Christian nations are very much 
inclined to painting, and in order to have their dresses painted 
they need salt petre which exists only in those ridges; and, 
in order to go and get it, two or three thousand Indians band 



690 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

together whom the said Navajoe Apaches go out to meet in 
warhke terms in defense of their land and thereupon very 
many deaths follow unless they arrive there on occasions 
when the Apaches have already retired to other mountain 
ridges to hunt; and after they know that they have come to 
take the salt petre away from them, they purposely join to 
go and make war upon the Christians in order to avenge the 
latter's entrance into their lands. And the multitude is so 
great that, in two days, more than thirty thousand Indians, 
of bow and arrow get together; and this is quite a meager 
calculation for, sometimes when the Spaniards have gone 
there to punish them, on account of the many Christian 
Indians they kill, although they (the Spaniards) gave them 
sound drubbings, catching them by surprise, they found the 
camps always swarming with warriors without number. 
They have some sorts of underground habitations, and cer- 
tain fashion of shanties to gather in their harvests and they 
always dwell in that post. And now, during the month of 
September, of last year, 1629, Our Lord vouchsafed that I 
should pacify them, to lohich evd I Jounded a convent and 
church at the jnceblo of Santa Clara of the Taos nation, Chris- 
tians, that were neighbors in the frontier, and who received 
many damages from these Apaches, and I very much desired 
to make peace with them, for from such a step their conver- 
sion would ensue, as it did ensue. And as the success, had 
in it, was a peculiar one, I will state how it was obtained, as 
Your Majesty may be pleased to know about it. 

"In the month of September of last year, 1629, while 
attending the aforesaid convent of Santa Clara, at the pueblo, 
called Capoo, which was the tenth and last I founded in those 
conversions, to which these Navajoe Apaches more f req uently 
hastened to do mischief, and having seen that I could not 
catch one of them to make him presents, and send him back 
to his land to his captains to ask them to come and treat 
about making peace, I made up my mind to venture to send 
twelve of my Christian Indians, men of talent and of much 
courage; for which purpose I called together the captains 
and elders of the pueblo, and manifested to them the desire 
I had that such peace should be made, both to stop so many 
deaths as well as that the}" might deal with each other in 



^ 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 691 

their granges, and mainly because in this way we might 
obtain their conversion, which was my chief aim. All were 
of this opinion, and appointing one of the twelve as captain, 
as he was the most talented, they gave him, after their 
fashion, the embassy of peace, which consisted of an arrow, 
and instead of a Hint, a feather of various colors, and a tube 
filled with tobacco ready to be smoked, with another feather 
whicli showed the ones in which they had smoked. Well, the 
arrow was for the purpose that on arriving at the ranching 
camp, and on approaching it he should throw that meek 
arrow as a signal of peace; and the tube was for the purpose 
that he should invite them to smoke, and that he should enter 
their land with this word 'peace'. I' also gave him my word 
of peace which was a rosary, for the captain, and that I 
desired to interview him in order to treat of peace. And in 
order that this endeavor should have the effect it had, it hap- 
pened to be the eve of the day of the wounds of our Father 
St. Francis, on September 17, of last year, 1629, and so I 
told them to come all to mass the next day, to which all the 
people attended, praying to God for the good success, and 
asking our Father St. B"'rancis to be his sponsor, and so I at 
once dedicated to him that conversion and Province. Mass, 
which was sung with all solemnity, having been heard, these 
Indians started with the greatest courage and spirit; and, 
having asked for my blessing, commenced their journey from 
the church itself. God alone knows how" oppressed my 
heart was on seeing the danger to which I had exposed those 
Indians, for when an enterprise fails there are never want- 
ing ill-disposed persons who judge it as rash; and if the same 
succeeds, few give it due credit, but I always had full faith 
in God, Our Lord, that He w^ould protect them from their 
enemies. 

"When they had, therefore, arrived in sight of the first 
ranching camp, the frontier of that indomitable and ferocious 
nation, where dwelt the chief captain of all those frontiers, 
and the mightiest cousin of the cacique, who governed them 
all, and who had come there to raise men in order to do the 
Christians considerable damage, they shot the marked 
arrow% which, when seen by the enemy, they answered them 
with another in the same manner, wherewith they com- 



692 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

menced to approach, though at a safe distance and with mis- 
trust. On arriving, our captain delivered him his embassy 
and treated him to the pipe of tobacco, and in the same way 
he also gave my rosary, and gave his embassy on the part 
of his captains and mine; and as he had never received a 
rosary, he asked what meant so many grains on that string. 
Our ambassador answered him, as his opinion, although dis- 
cretely, that, as they were many captains, the priest sent 
them there, to each one of them, his word that he would be 
their friend, an answer which satisfied him very much; to 
which the captain, heaving a very deep sigh, answered that 
he regretted very much that they should have come to offer 
him peace, which, however, on account of being such a good 
thing, and the circumstance of their having come to bring it 
home to him, he could not but receive; but that he was 
much offended at the Christians, and that, on this occasion 
he had things so disposed that he would have taken ven- 
geance very well; but that he accepted and wanted peace; 
and so he immediately dispatched the arrow and tobacco 
pipe to his cacique and remained with my rosary on the 
neck; and, mistrustful lest this should have a double mean- 
ing, he said to our men that, although he granted peace in 
the name of all, he wanted to know from me and all the 
Christian captains personally if it was true that we gave it 
to him, and that, therefore, he wanted to come and see us 
at our pueblo. 

"I was advised of this by one of our men who came as 
courier, and I caused more than fifteen hundred souls to go 
out and receive him. I waited for him at the church which 
I commanded to be well adorned and to be lit with many 
lights because it was already at night when they arrived; 
and, because this nation is haughty and proud, it seemed 
fit to me to receive this captain and those coming with him 
in a different manner from the other nations: for we sat on 
the ground with them at first, being satisfied with their 
plainness until we taught them more refinement; the Apache 
nation, though, being so proud, it seemed opportune to me 
to change style, and so, I ordered a chair placed closed by 
the altar upon a mat and, sitting on it, I received him. All 
the people came before him, and, among the Christian cap- 



[LLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 693 

tains, this Apache captain came, and four others of his 
captains. After entering the church and offering prayer at 
the altar, the chief captain of the Christians came to me 
and kissed my feet, a thing I did not reject presently neither 
had I prepared it before hand, and the same thing was done, 
after his example and in imitation of him by the strangers; 
and, after having saluted me, the chief said that those 
captains had gone to offer him peace on my part and on the 
part of their captains, and that he came to know it personally 
for the sake of better security. Immediately the chief 
captain of the Pueblo rose, and offered the Apache his own bow 
and arrows, saying that there before God, who was present 
in that altar, and before me, who was his priest, he gave those 
arms in faith of his word that he never would break the 
peace, and he lay them at the altar; and, that he might 
know that all were of the same mind he asked the pueblo if 
all of them consented in it, and uttering a big yell they 
answered, yes. Then the Apache captain selected an arrow 
from his carcax, in his opinion, the best one made of white 
sharp flint, and, in a loud voice before all, spoke thus: 'I 
do not know who it is that you call God; but, since you call on 
him as witness and support of your word, that you will not 
break your faith without fail, he must be a person of great 
power and authority, and good; and so, too, to that God, be 
he who he may, I give my word and faith, in the name of all 
mine, with this arrow in the hand of this priest, and that for 
my part, nor for that of my people, peace and friendship 
will never fail.' And on receiving the arrow from him I 
told him if he wished me to tell him who God was. would he 
be pleased to hear me especially after having pledged his 
word. And, as he said yes, I explained to him, in very 
brief words, who God was, the Creator and Lord of every- 
thing created and that, to ransom us from eternal punish- 
ment he had died on a cross, showing him everything by the 
paintings on the altar; and that he who would not adore him 
and be baptized would be condemned to go and burn forever 
in those eternal torments. And as the word of God is so 
efficacious, it moved his heart so much that, with magnifi- 
cent spirit and deep sighs, he turned to all the people and, 
in a very loud voice said to them: 'Oh Teoas! How I envy 



69i ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OP NEW MEXICO. 

your lot for having here a man who teaches you who God is^ 
and so many good things; while we live and die wandering 
through those camps and mountains, like deer and hares. 
I, therefore, declare that I adore this God whom this priest 
proclaims; now that I know him, I grant peace and give my 
word to keep it in all its force!" And, with tearful eyes, he 
sank upon his knees to kiss my feet, whereupon I raised him 
up, and embraced him with all the tenderness I could, and 
then all the Christian captains embraced him likewise. At 
this moment I caused the bells to be rung and to sound the 
trumpets and clarions, a thing he was much pleased to hear 
on account of this being the first time he had heard them. I 
then hung those arrows on the altar as trophies of the 
Divine word although through the ministry of one as humble 
as myself; and in such a manner did I manifest the fact to 
the pueblo, so that they all might give thanks to His Divine 
Majesty, whereupon the Christian captains carried their 
guests home and I entertained them as I best could. 

"The next day in the morning, as it was Saturday, at the 
ringing of the bell for the mass of our lady, to which all the 
pueblo attends, this Apache captain also came with the other 
Christian chiefs and with his own men; and, learning that my 
name was Alonso, he asked my leave to be so named himself; 
I told him that he would be so named on being baptized, 
although thereafter all called him Don Alonso. To commence 
the mass I put on the best ornaments we had, and he was 
astonished to see the devotion with which the Spaniards and 
Christian Indians were praying on their knees. Before 
commencing mass I married a couple of Indians; and, as the 
Apaches have all the women they can support, it appeared 
well to them that Christians should have only one, and that 
they should promise to themselves mutual fidelity before 
God. Wishing, then, to commence mass, and he not being 
yet baptized, I told him that not until he should be baptized 
could he see God in the mass; and to go out and take a walk 
with his comrades while I said it. He answered that he held 
himself already as a Christian; and thatheadored God as earn- 
estly as all of us, and that, therefore, he wished to remain in 
order to see Him. On being answered that he could not do 
that until he was baptized, he commanded his comrades to go 



I 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 695 

out, but said that he would not go out. In order to amuse 
him, I commanded the singers to sing the Salve Regina with 
organ accompaniment, in all solemnity, and also at the sound 
of trumpets and clarions. And clad thus in full vestments, 
at the foot of the altar, 1 chanted the prayer at the close of 
which I again sat on the chair and repeated to him a few 
words concerning the creation and the redemption, where- 
with he was every time more confirmed in the faith. 

"Some Spanish soldiers had gathered around for the pur- 
pose of hearing mass; and he said that the peace he had 
settled with the Teoas, he desired also to establish with the 
Spaniards. Thereupon he gave a Spanish captain, who was 
present there, an arrow by my hand, as a pledge of his word 
that he would not fail in peace, and our Spaniard, unsheath- 
ing his sword, gave it also to me, in the presence of the 
Indian, in faith that he granted him peace in the name of 
God, and at the same time accepted his pledge. Everything, 
as before, was placed upon the altar, offering it to God as 
witness and judge of that act which was, in like manner, 
hailed amid the sound of bells, trumpets and clarions a second 
time. Wherefore he remained full of comfort, stating, that 
the truth of our holy Catholic faith could be well perceived, 
as it was celebrated with so much solemnity, and that they 
lived like brute animals in the field. And this done, I dis- 
missed him with some Christian captains to their houses, 
and said the mass for the pueblo. He felt, afterwards, quite 
offended at this, as he had desired to have seen God at the 
mass. 

"He and his men stayed there for three or four days, hear- 
ing with devotion the things concerning our holy Catholic 
faith, observing and noticing the contentment in which the 
Christians lived. And the fear of the punishments of hell had 
particularly settled very deeply in their souls, whence by all 
means they desired to become Christians, and they also said 
that, as they loved very much their wives and children and 
those of their nation, it would grieve them exceedingly that 
they should go to hell through not being Christians. Where- 
fore they earnestly requested me to go to their ranching 
camps, at least for ten days, to say to their kin what they 
had heard of me here, which to them were things so mar- 



696 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

velous that he would not be competent to tell them, nor would 
his people believe them, if he told them himself. He at last 
went away in order to come back after a moon and a half 
(a month and a half, for they reckon time by moons), and in 
order to contirm this peace he wanted to bring along all the 
women and children of those neighboring ranching camps 
with many tanned deerskins and 'piedra lumbre,' (alum) so 
as to hold a grand fair to last three days that they might thus 
mutually acquire a deep friendship. And thenceforth he 
assured the Spaniards that they could go and hunt and do 
anything else they wanted in his lands; that they would be 
treated like friends. And so it was; for previously, if any 
one entered there for only a quarter of a league, he was in 
great danger, for every day they killed Christians; and, since 
this peace was made, even old women went out for wood to 
those parts, and if they met with any Apaches they were well 
attended and they gave them a share of the game they had 
killed. This conversion and pacification is being continued 
by a religious, who will effect it even better than I could. 
This province must have along the frontier, perhaps, more 
than fifty leagues, but it extends to the west for more than 
300 leagues, and we do not know where it ends. And this 
province is the one that has given more unrest and care to 
New Mexico, but because its inhabitants are so warlike and 
valiant, as because there are in it more than 2,000 souls, as 
the Spaniards have seen every time they have gone to tight. 

Apache Buffalo Hunters From Cibola. 

"Leaving, then, this province of the Navajoe Apaches, and 
turning to the east, we start at the Province of the Apache 
nation, which runs through that part and turns back enclos- 
ing the settlements for more than 150 leagues, until it reaches 
those of El Perrillo, where we started on entering New Mex- 
ico. This nation and province supports itself from cows they 
call Cibola (buffalo); these animals are similar to ours in size, 
but different in form, being short-legged as well, and having 
a hump on the back and short and sharp horns and thick 
manes that cover their eyes, all of a black and brownish 
color, and only by chance is one seen with a white spot. Its 
meat is more savory than that of our cows, and the tallow 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 697 

much better; they do not bellow as our bulls, but grunt like 
hogs; their tails are short with little hair on it. The hair is 
not like that of our stock, it is crisp, like fine fleece, from 
which very good mats are made, and of the young ones, very 
fine vigogne hats. Likewise the hides of the calves are used 
as lining. I have spoken so extensively about this stock, 
because of its great number, and its being so widely scat- 
tered, that we have found no limit to it, and we have infor- 
mation that it roams from the south to the north sea, and 
in such numbers that the plains are thickly covered with 
them. This stock alone would be sufficient to make a prince 
rich and powerful, if they could be taken to other places. 
There are troops of more than forty thousand bulls, without 
a single cow, to all appearances, for they all go apart until the 
time of coupling. It is not the sort of stock that allows itself 
to be caught by rounding up, not even by mixing our domes- 
tic stock with them; and so at the breeding season, the 
Spaniards go and catch the small heifers which they breed 
up to goats. As this stock is so abundant, and as it changes 
its hide and hair every year, they leave their wool over the 
fields and the winds blow it against trees or into crevices in 
such quantities, that it could enrich many, and yet all is lost. 
"From this stock, then, these Apache cattle hunters draw 
their sustenance, for which purpose they approach very 
cautiously their watering places, and hide themselves in the 
waypaths, painted with red dust smeared with the mud of 
the same ground, and stretched in the deep gutters made 
by the stock. While the stock is crossing they employ to 
advantage the arrows they carry with them, and as this stock 
is dull, though quite ferocious and swift, it throws itself upon 
the ground while smarting under its wounds. The Indians 
then skin the animals, and carry home the skin, the tongues, 
the loins and the sinews out of which they make bowstrings. 
They tan the skin in two ways; some by leaving the hair on 
them giving it the appearance of plush velvet; this they use 
as beds and covers in summer. Others are tanned and 
thinued without the hair and this they use to make tents 
and other things after their fashion. With these assortments 
of hides they trade all over the land and in that way make 
their living. Both the Indians and the Spaniards use these 



698 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

hides for dress purposes and as material for making bags, 
tents, breast plates, footwear, and anything else they think 
it fit for. And, although many of these animals are killed 
every year, its numbers do not decrease, but rather increases 
more and more, for the plains become thick with it and it 
seems inexhaustible. These Indians, then, start to the 
neighboring provinces to trade and sell this assortment 
of hides: and here I must not fail to say a thing somewhat 
incredible, although ridiculous, and it is that when they go 
out to trade and traffic, they carry their camps including 
the women and children, who live in tents made out of 
these buffalo hides well thinned and tanned. The tents are 
carried loaded on the backs of dogs with their small pack 
saddles adjusted to them. They are small dogs, and five 
hundred of them are taken on a drove one after the other, 
and the Indians carry their merchandise on their backs 
which they exchange for cotton clothing and other things 
they need. 

"This Province of Apache buffalo hunters surrounds (as 
already said) the settlements of New Mexico, for a distance 
of more than 150 leagues on the eastern part, and it stretches 
out in the same direction for over a hundred leagues. The 
whole of it is plentifully settled by camps formed of the 
aforesaid tents and an infinite number of Indians. Our Lord 
has been pleased that their conversion and pacification 
should have been commenced by means of the good treat- 
ment given them by the religious; and their principal captain, 
having heard that the Spaniards at the Villa of Santa Fe 
had the Mother of God, which was a statue of transit of the 
Virgin, our Lady, taken there by myself, and was in a chapel 
well bedecked with ornaments, came to see her showing 
great affection and then they became Christians. But the 
devil, seeing that in this way, the empire he held was being 
wrested from him, employed one of his tricks in his own 
defense, using as a means to that end the greed of our 
Spanish Governor, who,'with the view of obtaining slaves to 
send out to New Spain for sale, sent an Indian captain^ 
hostile to that nation, to bring him as many captives as he 
could. This infernal minister succeeded in getting to the 
ranching camp of the Indian captain, who had given his- 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NKW MEXICO. 699' 

word to the Virgin to become a Christian with all his 
comrades. He, the Indian chief, fought until he was killed 
together with many of his people, as he had along with him 
many warriors. The dead captain had on his neck a rosary 
I had given him, which he placed before his aggressor im- 
ploring him by it and by the Mother of God not to kill him; 
but his supplications did not deter the savage tyrant from 
using his cruelty. He conveyed a few captives to the gov- 
ernor, who feigned that he was not wishing to receive them, 
and though he attempted to hang the Indian he had sent, on 
account of the stir caused by the act, his greed was mani- 
festly apparent to all. This deed caused the uprising of all 
this Province, although (God be blessed) we are again 
gradually reducing it and the Indians well know who was 
to blame, and for that God must be adored above all things. 
"It seems to me that, with the foregoing remarks, this 
Apache nation will be sufficiently well known, whose lands 
(as already said) reach over one hundred leagues, along the 
banks of the Rio del Norte, which are inhabited by the 
pueblos of New Mexico, namely: Teoas, (Tiguex) Tanos, 
Tioas, Xemes, Piros, Tompiras and Queres. It extends on 
the outer bank from east to west, and from north to south 
over spaces to which we have found no limit. The climate is 
like that of our Christian settlements which we have already 
related^ — extremely cold in winter, and extremely hot in 
summer. All possible diligence is being made for their con- 
version. God alone knows when its hour will arrive. 

Miraculous Conversion of the Xumana Nation. 

"Leaving now all this western part, and starting from the^ 
Villa of Santa F6, in the center of New Mexico, which is at 
37 degrees, and traversing the nation of the Apache buffalo 
hunters for over a hundred and twelve leagues to the east,, 
we come to the Xumana nation; which, on account of its 
miraculous conversion, it is but fair to relate how they were 
converted. Years back, while a rehgious named Fray Juan 
de Salas traveled along, engaged in the conversion of the- 
Tompiras and saline Indians, where the best salt mines in 
the world are found, whose boundary on that side is this 
Xumana nation, they were at war among themselves; and 



700 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Father Pray Juan de Salas returning to the saline Indians, 
the Xumanas said that persons who returned for the sake of 
the poor were good people; and so they became attached to 
the Father, and begged him to go and live among them, and 
every year they came to look for him. But as he was con- 
stantly employed administering the Christian Indians 
because and also on account of his not having a sufficient 
number of priests, he tactfully kept the Xumanas waiting 
until God should be pleased to send out more laborers which 
He did last year, 1629, by inspiring Your Majesty with the 
idea of ordering the Viceroy of New Spain to send us thirty 
religious, who were brought out there by Father Fray 
Estevan de Perea, as their custodian, and so we immediately 
sent out said Father with Father Fray Diego de Lopez, giving 
them as guides Indians of the same nation. Before they 
started, we asked the Indians to tell us the reason why they 
were so fondly asking to be baptized, and for calling on us to 
go to and teach them the Christian doctrine. They answered 
that a woman similar to the one whose picture we had there 
(a picture of Mother Luisa de Carrion) had appeared to them 
and had advised them in their own language to call us priests 
that they be taught and baptized, and not to be lazy; and 
that the woman who had so spoken to them was dressed 
exactly as the one painted there, but that the face was not 
alike; that she was comely and beautiful. And after that, 
every time the Indians came again from that nation, on see- 
ing the picture of the Virgin, would confer among them- 
selves and say that the dress was the same, but not the face, 
because that of the woman who appeared to them was 
comely and beautiful. 

"The devil seeing that those souls were going to be rescued 
from his claws attempted to defend himself by employing 
one of his tricks and that was, he caused the lakes of water 
from which they drank to become dry, owing to which, also, 
the abundant cibola (buffalo) stock which grazed there, and 
which is the sustenance of all these nations, abandoned the 
plains there; and then by means of the Indian wizards, spread 
out the report that they should change places so as to look for 
what to eat, and that the religious, whom they had sent for, 
would not come, as in six years they had been waiting for 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 701 

them, they had not yet arrived, and, on this occasion, they 
had already delayed so long, that it was useless to wait for 
them any longer. Thereupon the captains commanded to 
break up the camp in order to move the next day at dawn; 
but at day break the holy woman again spoke to them telling 
them not to go, that the religious they had sent for were 
coming soon: then holding a general conference among 
themselves, they sent out twelve of the most reliable cap- 
tains to go out and see if it was so. On the third day these 
Indians met with the religious, whom they begged to show 
them the picture of the woman that preached to them, and 
as the Father showed them one of mother Luisa de Carrion, 
they said that that was the same they had seen, but that the 
other was more beautiful and comely. Immediately they 
started back to carry their comrades the news of the arrival 
of the Fathers; and the whole nation came out in procession 
to receive them with two crosses in front, as titly inspired by 
heaven, which was then and there adored by the said Fathers 
and three soldiers who went along with them, the priests 
also drew out two crucifixes that hung from their necks, and 
all the Indians approached to kiss and venerate them, as if 
they had been old Christians. And they did the same to a 
statue of the infant Jesus the priests had brought along, 
touching it with their lips at which sight all of our men were 
struck with admiration. Now, more than three thousand 
souls had gathered to hear the word of the Lord, when 
Father Salas asked them if they wanted to be baptized from 
their hearts. To this the captains answered that it was only 
for that purpose they had sent for them and gathered in that 
place. The priest told them that, although it was true that 
the captains spoke for all, he would be delighted to hear it 
from the mouth of each person, and that as that was impos- 
sible on account of the large multitude, that the word should 
be passed, and that all wishing to become Christians should 
raise their arms and he would thus know those who wanted 
to become Christians. 

"A wonderful thing; for with a wild yell all raised their 
arms standing on foot asking for holy baptism; and what 
edified us more was that the mothers held in their arms their 
babies, caught their little arms and stretched them upwards 



702 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO, 

asking for them in loud tones tiie holy baptism. It is the 
power of the Divine word which works so efficaciously. 

"These religious remained there for a few days preaching 
and teaching the inhabitants how to pray, they attending the 
exercises with punctuality morning and evening. During 
this time messengers came from the other neighboring 
nations to call the Fathers that they might go and teach them, 
for there also, they said, the holy woman was preaching. 
And as that harvest seemed quite abundant to the Fathers, 
while the husbandmen were few, and the people being so well 
disposed to settle and build churches they returned to where 
we were in order to ask for more priests. Before leaving 
they assembled all the Indians to take leave of them, and, 
availing himself of the opportunity, Father Salas told them 
that during his absence he wanted them to go every day, as 
they were wont, to pray before the cross they had placed 
upon a rock, and that in all their needs they should hasten 
with faith to that holy cro^s, and that the cross would remedy 
them. To which the Indian captain answered in these words: 
'Father, we are not yet able to obtain anything from God, 
since we are animals and deer of the fields, but you can get 
much from God and from his holy cross and we have many 
sick persons; cure them before you go away.' And it seems 
that God permitted that there should be on that occasion so 
many sick persons for his Divine mercy to be shown upon, 
that although they commenced to bring the sick at three 
o'clock in the afternoon, they continued vs;^orking all that 
afternoon, all the night, and the next day until ten o'clock. 
One of the religious stood on one side and the other on the 
other side; and, just by making the sign of the cross over 
them, saying the Gospel of St. Luke. ^Loquente Jesu,' ihe 
prayer of our lady, 'grant us Oh Lord,' and that of Our Holy 
Father St. Francis, 'deus qui ecclesiam tuam,' the sick 
instantaneously rose up completely healed. The blind, the 
lame, the hydropics — all were cured. Oh infinite goodness! 
let the angels bless Thee, since Thou thus deignest to honor 
the sacred religion and her children confirming by their hand 
with so many miracles thy Divine word! The religious who 
witnessed such wonders stood as though stunned with admi- 
ration at the sight of such marvels, worked by their hands; 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 703 

and the Indians became so well confirmed in the faith of the 
holy cross that immediately each one placed a cross over the 
frontispiece of his tent, and, afterwards, every time they went 
out, carried it along as their guide. Those who were thus 
miraculously healed were so many that they could not be 
reckoned in numbers. 

"It may be easily inferred, from what has been said how 
copious has been the spiritual good our seraphic order has 
done throughout the world; and on this land it is she alone 
that, amid so many hardships and dangers, has made these 
discoveries; for, as we have already said, in only one district 
of a hundred leagues we have baptized more than 80,000 
souls, and have built more than fifty churches and many 
good convents; and there is more than 500,000 Indians whom 
we have pacified and subdued to Your Majesty in said nations, 
same being now gradually catechized and baptized. And that 
land which had hitherto been the abode of the devil, without 
a single soul to praise the most holy name of Jesus, is today 
rich with temples, and convents and pedestals for the holy 
cross; there being no one throughout the whole country who, 
on greeting another does not praise God and his holy Mother 
at the same time, — a work of merit in which Your Majesty 
is so deeply interested, for it is with your royal help that we 
sustain ourselves in those conversions, and with your royal 
resources that we found churches for the Lord. Where- 
fore I have the greatest faith in believing that as Your 
Majesty expands so amply the field of Catholic faith, our 
Lord, will pay it all back to Your Majesty even in this life, in 
the same coin, — that is, in extending the authority of your 
royal crown, subduing so many enemies of the faith, and 
laying open before you as many rich treasures of mines as 
the ones we have already discovered. 

Kingdom of Quivira Aixaos. 

"While these two religious had been performing those 
wonders in the Xumana nation, in that of the Lapies, 
Xabatos, and others contiguous in that vicinity to each 
other, in oninem terrara exivit sonus corum, their voice also 
reached the kingdom of Quivira, and that of the Aixaos, 
w^hich lay from there at a distance of 30 or 40 leagues to the 



704 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

east. These Indians also sent ambassadors to the Fathers 
requesting them to go there to teach and baptize them, they 
saying also how the same holy woman had been preaching to 
them to come and call the religious; but, as the religious 
were already about to start back to the place they had come 
from, in order to bring what was necessary for the purpose 
of founding churches, they told the ambassadors that more 
religious were coming to help them: so, then, the ambassa- 
dors came along with the religious and related to them the 
reason why they asked baptism. 

"I cannot but relate, on this occasion, the great service 
done Your Majesty by my order in the pacification and con- 
version of this kingdom of Quivira and Aixaos, which nations 
are well known for their greatness and richness. As the 
Villa of Santa Fe is at 37 degrees, by going thence to the 
east for 150 leagues, this kingdom is reached, and it is at the 
same height. In like manner, we know from evidence and 
from eye sight that there are, in this kingdom and in that of 
Aixaos. which is contiguous to it, large quantities of gold; 
and every day we see some of their Indians who trade with 
our people and who testify to that fact. The same fact is 
averred by the Flemish and the English, who, by way of 
Florida, are near them, and buy from them gold-dust in 
great quantity, and thus these heretics enjoy a great 
wealth which the Catholic church in the name of God granted 
to Your Majesty, and therewith make war upon us. In the 
same manner, the captain and great pilot, Don Vicente Gon- 
zales, of the Lusitania nation, who went from Havana to 

, on the coast of Florida, also bears witness 

to it. Reentered the large river in which the English are 
settled, and, penetrating into the inland, saw the Quivira 
and Aixaos Indians, with earrings and necklaces of gold, 
very thick and so soft that they could do with their fingers 
whatever they pleased with them, the Indians assuring him 
there was a great deal of that metal in Quivira and 
Aixaos. Therefore, in order that Your Majesty may enjoy this 
treasure it is necessary that this kingdom of Quivira and that 
of the Aixaos be settled, and the Indians be made Christians. 
Upon examination of the country of Quivira and the country 
towards the nearest part of the sea that lies to the east, 



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706 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

there is a bay marked in marine charts with the title of 
'Esplritu Santo' at 29 degrees, between Apalache cape and 
the coast of Tampico, which is the northern coast of New 
Spain within the gulf. Coasting, then, from this kingdom of 
Quivira to this gulf, there is not a hundred leagues, and one 
can go from there to Havana in five or six days by coasting 
along the coast. So that if this part or bay of Espiritu Santo 
was to be settled, more than 800 leagues could thereby be 
saved, the same being the distance between New Mexico and 
Havana by way of Mexico. These are traveled in more than 
a year, and 400 of them by a warlike and very perilous land, 
where Your Majesty incurs large expenses in escorts of 
soldiers, and in wagons; while through this w^ay, that is, by 
the Espiritu Santo bay, all that is avoided is only 100 leagues 
of road that lie between the kingdom of Quivira and this bay, 
and all along the road are friendly and well known Indians 
who must be by this time converted and only expecting their 
baptism, for I left them last year in that state of mind. In 
like manner, by this route is much nearer, from which fact 
great benefits can be derived by shipping all the hides that 
can be secured from the Cibola stock (buffalo) and its wool, 
for as these animals shed off their wool, the wind gathers it 
in piles and heaps it over the plains and all is lost. The same 
thing can be done with many other kinds of commodities 
which this land produces. Traffic and commerce can be estab- 
lished easily with all points along the coast of New Spain, to- 
wit: Tampico, San Juan de Lua, Campeche, Havana and 
Florida and everything in sight of land; wherefore all those 
ports will increase in wealth, and in this Your Majesty is 
greatly interested. Aside from these advantages in that 
Espiritu Santo bay you have many pearls and amber which 
are lost today because the bay is not settled. 

"This is the cause why many Dutch pirates infest those 
parts plundering all the schooners that traverse the gulf, 
while if the bay was settled, they would have no place to 
intrench themselves. Similarly, in order to carry from 
Mexico to New Mexico the necessaries which Your Majesty 
sends to those churches, five hundred leagues are traveled, 
most of them through warlike nations, and then to reach 
Quivira, one hundred and fifty more must be traveled, a 



708 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

transit in which Your Majesty expends more than what the 
principal is worth, yet all this would be avoided by sending 
it on a schooner from Havana to Esplritu Santo bay, if the 
latter is settled. 

Holy Occupation of tKe Religious. 

"Well may it be inferred, from what is said above, how 
brilliant are the labors and pilgrimages of the religious of 
ray Father St. Francis in the service of God, Our Lord, for 
not only have they wrested from the devil his empire on those 
souls, but have destroyed all idolatry and adoration of the 
demon: they have caused the Lord and Creator of all things 
to be adored where there were only dens of idolatry; very 
sumptuous and costly temples have been erected over all the 
land, temples which the religious have made with such care 
that in order so to make them, they willingly despoiled them- 
selves of whatever Your Majesty gave them for their suste- 
nance and raiment. Their incessant occupation is that of 
Martha and Mary, attending, like Martha, to active life, 
curing the sick, feeding the poor and needy, causing fields to 
be sown for this purpose, raising stock, and by means of 
this stock, breaking lands for the Indians that do not live in 
settlements, and after having built housesfortbemand plowed 
and sown their lands, furnishing them with all the necessaries 
for the first month of the year, they gather them to live there- 
in like reasonable beings. Then they teach them to recite 
the Christian doctrine, and teach them also good habits. 
Similarly they teach readmg and writing to the boys and also 
to sing; there is then a motive for praising the Lord, on seeing 
so many chapels with organ singing. 

Trade and Arts Taught to Indians. 

"In the same way they are taught all necessary trades 
such as tailoring, shoemaking, carpentery, blacksmithing, 
music, painting, etc., in all of which they are already quite 
skillful. On the other hand, neither do they, the Fathers, 
like Mary, ever fail in their monachal duties which is the 
life they have professed, for, with so many occupations in 
the administration of the Holy Sacraments, they go, without 
resting, from pueblo to pueblo, as there is nc religious who- 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



709 



has not under his charge at least four or five pueblos. They 
live in such a way, that they look like a community, and mattins 
never fail to be held at midnight, and at the other hours, 
while high mass is always celebrated on time. The convents 
are harmoniously administered so that they look more like 
sanctuaries than the houses of single friars. And yet with 
all such continuous occupations, fastings are never wanting, 
no, not even the lents of the blessed are omitted, as well and 




Cathedral, Santa Fe. 

many other spiritual exercies wherewith they edify the 
Spaniards, and the Indians, both of whom respect them as 
if they were angels. 

"I have thus, enpassant, touched upon this subject omitting 
many other things I might have said, only to the end that 
Your Majesty may be appraised of the quality and virtue of 
your chaplain, who, with such gratitude, love, and good 
will, commend Your Majesty to God in that secluded 
corner of the earth, and in that primitive church, where 
Our Lord works so many wonders, and where Your Ma- 
jesty's favor and help is so much needed both on account 



710 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

of the duty imposed upon Your Majesty by the Church 
in the Bull of Alexander VI, when she, the Church, gave 
you in the name of God these kingdoms, only for the 
care you should take of upholding therein our holy Catholic 
faith and for the conversion of so many souls, as well as for 
the many mercies with which God Our Lord endowes Your 
Majesty therein by giving you as many riches as we have 
discovered in the Province of the Piros, as I have already 
said, and in this Kingdon of Quivira and Aixaos. The only 
thing wanting to obtain the full development of that monarchy 
is the settlement of the ports from which such wealth may 
be drawn out, and that there be some one to work them out; 
for it is clear that the lumps of silver will not come out of 
the mines by themselves, but that some expense must be 
incurred in order to bring them home. It is enough for God 
Our Lord, to show the rich metals to our eyes, and the ports 
through which we should gain their possession. 

The Coast of the South. 

"Having treated of all the land we have pacified and con- 
verted, it is but just for Your Majesty to know something 
concerning another treasure- reserved for Your Majesty, 
since more than seventy years ago, and which after it was 
discovered was left untouched until our Lord ma}^ vouchsafe 
to hasten the arrival of its hour of development. It is about 
seventy years that the Viceroy of New Spain, Don Antonio 
de Mendoza, sent out Captain Vasquez Coronado to discover 
the coast of the south, and with him went four religious of 
my order. And, although for the purpose of treating about 
these nations we might commence from New Mexico, thence 
going directly to the south, or from the road to New Mexico 
in the last pueblo of New Spain, which is the valley of Santa 
Barbara, thence starting westward, it being a land contigu- 
ous to said coast, the same as New Mexico, and because no 
religious order has entered it except that of my Father, 
Saint Francis, which, at the price of its blood, brought there 
the knowledge of our holy Catholic faith — acting, then, 
under the supposition that, in order to perform this journey, 
the same should not be commenced from New Mexico, but 
from the City of Mexico — it seems wiser to me to commence 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 711 

it from the latter city, and thence arrive at the provinces of 
Chiametla, CuHacan and Sinaloa, which are at a distance of 
fifty or sixty leagues from Jalisco, These nations will be 
treated in the following order: 

' Valley of Senora. 

"I therefore declare that, starting out from this Province 
of Chiametla and traveling 80 leagues northward, always 
keeping close to and coasting the South Sea, one reaches 
and strikes the Valley of Senora, which is 70 leagues long 
and 30 wide, and through the center of which runs a large 
river. It is very fertile land, with planted fields, and 
strewn with many towns. The first pueblo is called 'Los 
Corazones,' on account of the deer hearts which were there 
given to our men.* This pueblo has seven hundred houses, 
arranged in good order, the temperature of the land being 
delightful. 

Agastan. 

"Six leagues ahead of this pueblo, in the same direction, is 
another one called 'Agastan" larger than the later; and round 
about and all over this valley there are many pueblos; 
but the chief one, which is the one where the cacique of this 
kingdom resides, has three thousand good houses of fine 
appearance, but in this pueblo and in the others they have 
their temples of idolatry and quite pretentious graveyards 
where the principal persons are buried. 

Cibola. 

"Leaving, then, the last pueblo of this valley of Senora, and 
going in the same northward direction, along the same coast 
of the south sea, for forty or fifty leagues, we come to the 
province of 'Cibola,' the principal city bearing the same 
name. The province has within its district seven other cities. 
The first one has about one thousand houses, and the others, 
many more. They are built of rock and wood, three to four 
stories and are quite imposing. 

*Cabeza de Baca is the one who g"ave that name to that town for 
the reason stated by Fr. Benavides (ante)— The Author. 



712 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Tihues (Tiguex). 

"After three other journeys have been made in the same 
direction, the province of Tihues is reached, which, in the 
beauty and strength of its buildings, outranks largely the 
last one. The first city after leaving Cibola, which must be 
the main town of this kingdom, is called Tihues (Tiguex). It 
has more than four thousand houses in each one of which 
from ten to fifteen inmates live. It has very high corridors 
and terraces, and also very high towers. The people of this 
city have ingress and egress to their houses through the roofs 
and terraces by means of passageways. It was situated on 
a plain on the banks of a large river * surrounded by stone 
walls without lime, but with gypsum, and for this reason the 
Spaniards were bewildered at its beauty. 

A City — Puaray. 

"There is another city at half a league from Tihues (Tiguex), 
also on the banks of the same river, of three thousand houses, 
where the king has his wives. It is very handsome and 
strongly built in the shape of a square, with stone houses. It 
has three compartments and the smallest is two hundred 
paces wide and as many long. From this plaza narrow streets 
shootout through which scarcely two men on horseback can 
pass abreast. All the houses have their corridors leading to 
the plaza as in all New Mexico, and their hothouses in them 
for winter; there are more than twenty of these houses very 
large — a good proof of the many people that live there, f 
Along the same bank of this river, two, three and four leagues 
from it, there are more than twenty other towns like this, 
more or less strong, and through the extent of sixty leagues 
traversed by this river as far as the sea, all the land is settled. 
The river is called the Rio Bravo and must have in width the 
distance covered by the shot of an arquebus. 

* This proves conclusively that Tiguex was situated on the banks 
of the Rio Grande, and not wliere Santa Fe now stands as claimed by 
some writers.— Thf, AnTHOR. 

t This is the Pueblo of Puaray. Capital of the Province of Tig-uex, 
where Coronado established his headquarters (ante). — The Author. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 713 

The Wonderful Rock. (Acoma) 

"Starting out from Tihues (Tiguex) westward, to the extent 
of two journeys, there is a city the strangest and strongest, 
perhaps, in the world, which contains more than two thou- 
sand houses, in which, it was said more than seven thousand 
inmates lived. There is a huge rock as high as the tower of 
Seville which seems to be more than one thousand leet in 
height. The summit of this rock is plain for a space of about 
a league without a tree or mound of any class or sort. On 
that plain the city is built. Up there, and down in the plains 
the inhabitants have their plantations and cornfields. This 
rock is so smooth and straight on the outside that there is no 
place in it whereby to climb to the top, except a single road 
cut in the rock by hand, so narrow, that only one person can 
pass in it, and at convenient spaces it has some concavities, 
so that if two persons meet on the way they may be able 
thereby to pass. On the summit they have large cisterns 
and vaulted reservoirs where they gather rain water. The 
rock is impregnable and wonderful in every detail. 

Tusayan. 

"Following in a westward course to the south sea coast, 
eighty leagues from Tihues (Tiguex), we come to the province 
of Tusayan, which has as many as thirty pueblos with good 
houses, though not as good as the ones noted. 

Cicuye (Gicuye Pecos). 

"Turning to the north from the city of Tihues (Tiguex), at 
three or four journeys, is a plain six leagues in extent, all 
full of plowed fields, among pine forests which yield wonder- 
ful pine (piiion) nuts and it has, also, other large and beauti- 
ful trees. A large and beautiful city is built there called in 
the language of that land Cicuye (Pecos). It lies on level 
ground, and must have more than one thousand very large 
houses, all six and seven stories high. It has two post fences, 
ten paces apart the one from the other, about two stadia in 
height, very strong for protection in times of war but not 
strong enough to resist artillery; it has its towers with 
red glittering spires; has three very large squares and in 



714 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

them many hot-houses (estufas), and in all the houses the 
corridors lead into the squares. The streets are very nar- 
row, only two horsemen can ride abreast. It is a beautiful 
and strong city, and for this reason it left our men tilled with 

astonishment. 

Quivira. 

"Fifteen short journeys from Tihues (Tiguex) towards the 
east carry us to the beginning of the Kingdom of Quivira 
where there are many large towns, their houses being made 
of straw as in New Spain; for the temperature there is very 
mild, and this nation does not construct its buildings any 
stronger than what they think they need for their wandering 
life: and though some call this the South Sea, it is not that 
of California, which extends from north to south till it goes 
out at the strait of Anian. 

"As far as this point did Vasquez Coronado and his men 
with our four religious reach, and they returned because he 
did not care to venture any farther with the few men, few 
ammunitions and the scarcity of provisions which he had. 
They were informed that on either side of the large river 
which they found there were very rich towns. And having 
left the seed of the word and knowledge of God planted in 
that soil, during the interval allowed him by so short a 
time, they turned back to give the Viceroy an account of 
what they had seen; and things shall so remain until God may 
be pleased to hasten the hour in which Your Majesty may 
also enjoy the lordship of that kingdom. May God's Majesty 
be vouchsafed so to dispose of all things that all those souls 
may know and adore His Most Holy Name, and that they 
may also receive the Holy Sacrament of Baptism. And 
may He give Your Majesty, spirit, grace, and power to 
subdue to the church and to your Royal Crown the many 
barbarous nations thererein dwelling. 

Fray Alonzo Benavides." 



APPENDIX SECOND. 



A Narrative of the Discovery and Conquest of New Mexico, as Civen 
by the Rev. Father Fr. Francisco Frejes, Historian of the Order of 
Franciscans — The Author of This Work Reproduces Verbatim the 
Narrative of Father Frejes Because it is Brief, But Calls the 
Attention of the Reader to the Errors Therein Appearing Regard- 
ing dates. For Example, he Says that Onate Came in 1595, and 
That the Ceneral Uprising Took Place in 1644, or 36 years 
Before Time (it Was in 1680), and That the Indians Killed Cover- 
nor Otermin in Which He is Also in Error. He Also Omits all 
Mention of Fray Niza, Coronado, and Fray Juan de Padilla and 
His Companion s(See Noteof Barreiro's to the ''Noticias Historicas 
de Pino, p. p. 5-8.) * 

"The conquest of this privileged land had the same 
beginning as that of the Province of Coahuila; all was the 
work of Providence. About the year 1532, the corps of 
troops which Nuno de Guzman placed under the command of 
Pedro Chirinos, as 1 have related in another place, met with 
three Spaniards, f who, on the invasion of Florida by 
Pamfilo de Narvaez, were strayed in the woods and came to 
a nation which, at the time, was suffering from an epidemic 
that was desolating it; and those Spaniards, with efficacious 
means cured the disease. This happy occurrence protected 
them from the savages, who from that moment did not allow 
them to leave the country, all of them having an interest in 
being cured by the Spaniards from their diseases. The 
Spaniards did not miss the opportunity for catechizing the 
indigenes in the principles of religion; and in order to find a 
way to escape from their captivity, they promoted among 
the friendly Indians an expedition to the western part of the 
territory where they supposed they might encounter their 

* No date is given in which Father Frejes published his narrative 
but from his languag-e it is deduced that it was at the beg-inning of the 
eighteenth century.— The Author. 

t The Spaniards alluded to were Cabeza de Vaca. and his com- 
panions (ante).— The Author. 



716 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

comrades. In the extended excursionsthey made, they stayed 
for a long time in New Mexico, and thence they entered 
Sonora wiiere they again came among the Spaniards. 

"The fruitful seed of religion which they had left in the 
hearts of those of the Indians was preserved until the year 
1581, in which Fray Agustin Ruiz, a Franciscan missionary, 
entered New Mexico. This religious resided in a mission of 
the territory of Chihuahua, and was informed by some 
friendlj'^ Concho Indians, that not far from there, many 
nations existed, and among them, some who already had a 
l^nowledge of the Catholic rehgion. Father Ruiz immediately 
undertook the discover}^ of these Indians, and in a few 
days succeeded in his purpose, catechizing and baptizing 
many of them. He then sought the help of some comrades 
who happily extended it to him from the missions of Sonora. 

"When the Viceroy of Mexico heard of the new discoveries 
and their progress, he sent out Don Antonio de Espejo, with 
some men and succors, to protect the missions. On account 
of a few uprisings which happened among the immediate 
tribes, it became necessary to ask for more troops in order to 
establish some garrisons, and an expedition under Don Juan 
de Oiiate, a relative of the conquerors of Jalisco, set out 
from Mexico and reached its destination in 1595. 

"Fifty years after, that is, in 1644, a general uprising of the 
nations of the territory took place in which all the mission- 
aries and even the Spanish Governor died at the hands of 
the savages: only a few inhabitants escaped, who took refuge 
at El Paso del Norte. Thence new requisitions were made 
upon the Viceroy for the re-conquest of what had been lost, 
and many of the descendants of the country's defenders 
joined the men who started from Zacatecas and other points 
for the re-conquest of the country under the orders of Don 
Diego de Vargas in the year 1694.* 

"After many a battle between the Spaniards and the 
rebellious savages, the later succumbed. The Pueblos of San 
Juan de los Caba leros and Pecos had remained loyal to the 
Spaniards, in spite of their lying in the interior of the coun- 

* This erroneous historical document of ¥r. Frejes, which the 
reader is now perusing, is the source from which some of the writers 
on New Mexico liistory obtained their information.— The Author. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 717 

try, and efficiently co-operated in the general pacification. 
Thenceforth, though, those colonies have not progressed as 
they might, on account of the continuous incursions of the 
savages, and they have for that reason placed themselves un- 
der the protection of the government like the other provinces. 

"We believe that the nev^s of the discovery of New Mexico 
is truthful, inasmuch as to us the following narrative 
appears to be worthy of credit, which we have found in the 
Memorial of Sacred and Real Notices of the Empire of the 
West Indies, by Juan de Dios Calle, officer of the secretary- 
ship of the viceroyalty, printed in this capital, in 1646. It 
says: 

"The discovery of the kingdom of New Mexico was made 
in the year 1581. Pray Agustin Ruiz, of the seraphic order of 
the glorious St. Francis, having had knowledge through the 
information given him by some Concho Indians of the valley of 
St. Bartolom6, jurisdiction of New Vizcay, who had commun- 
ication with those of the nation 'Passagnates,' that further 
ahead of these provinces there were other nations with still 
more population, went on to discover them with some of his 
religious comrades; and, having done this, he sent an account 
of it to Mexico, asking succors in order to prosecute his 
design. There was at this time in Mexico Antonio de Espejo, 
a rich and brave man, zealous for the service of God and of 
his Catholic majesty, who was selected for this journey. He 
assembled some soldiers, furnished the necessary provisions, 
115 horses and mules, arms, ammunitions and some men for 
service, with the leave of Captain Juan de Ontiveros, chief 
alcalde of the pueblos of the four Cienegas in the government 
district of New Vizcay, 70 leagues from the mines of Santa 
Barbara, and proceeded from the same valley of San Barto- 
lome on his journey in the year 1582, discovering fifteen pro- 
vinces, all filled with a large number of Indians, and houses 
of four and five stories to which provinces they gave the 
name of New" Mexico, because in many things it resembled 
the Old Mexico. Among other things, the natives who came 
to him during the time he was there, gave him as a present 
40,000 (?) white and painted cotton blankets, and large quan- 
tities of handkerchiefs, silver metals and other things; and 
in some of these provinces they found that the natives had 



•18 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



some notion of the mysteries of our holy faith, and, asking 
the reason of it, they were answered, that the natives had 
received those notions from three Christians and one negro, 
who had passed through there, stopping some days with 
them; that, according to the sigas given them, the Christians 




Views of Sisters of Charity SiinitiU-iuin, Santa Fe. 



were Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, and his comrades, Andres 
Djrantes, Bernardino del Castillo Maldonado, and the negro 
called Estevanico who had escaped from the armada with 
which Governor Pamtilode Narvaez entered Florida, and that 
during the time they were there, the Majesty of God, Our 
Lord, worked by them many miracles, healing an innumer- 
able multitude of sick persons by making the sign of the holy 
cross over them, and saying some prayer. And after Antonio 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 719 

de Espejo had gone and returned in the early part of July, 
1583, and, having reached the valley of 8an Bartolome v^^hence 
he had set out, he took note of everything and sent it to the 
viceroy, the Count of Coruna, that he might forward the same 
to His Majesty, through his royal and supreme council of the 
Indies, from which followed the order that the viceroy should 
take charge of the continuance of this discovery. 

"In the year 1595, which was the last of the administration 
of Viceroy Don Louis de Velasco in New Spain, the journey 
to this kingdom w^as again discussed, and Don Juan de 
Onate was given the charge of it, receiving also (from the 
viceroy) the title of Governor and Captain General of this 
province, four thousand ducats as help in his costs, and a 
loan of six thousand from the Royal coffers. On September 
30th the stipulations were concluded, and before this, it 
appears that Captain Francisco de Urdinola had attempted 
to make them, although they were not concluded with him, 
and as Don Louis left the government, the viceroy, the count 
of Monterey, his successor, sent out Don Juan de Onate 
on it. 

"For the instruction of the natives, he (Onate) carried 
along with him some religious of the order of Saint Francis, 
of whom Fray Rodrigo Duran went as commissary, and, 
afterwards. Fray Alonzo Martinez went with some others. 
He (Onate) arrived in New Mexico and settled there, took 
possession of it in the name of the King, Our Lord, and esta- 
blished his quarters in the pueblo that was named San 
Gabriel, whose site is at 80 degrees north, lying between 
two rivers, where the religious at once founded a convent, 
and baptized up to the year 1600, eight thousand souls. The 
district of these provinces commences 200 leagues ahead of 
the Valley of Santa Barbara, the last pueblo of New Spain; 
it is 400 leages distant from the City of Mexico, and 800 from 
Havana coming by way of Mexico. From the court of 
Madrid there is more than 2,600. And, due to the satisfac- 
tory results obtained by Don Juan de Onate, the King Philip 
II, our Lord who is in glory, in order to encourage him in 
his purpose, honored him, on February 7, 1602, with the 
title of Adelantado of these provinces, (he already being 
governor and captain general) for himself, his son or heir. 



720 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



And in the years 1621 and 1631, it was proposed by the Order 
of Saint Francis that his Majesty authorize the building of a 
Cathedral to be erected in these provinces, with a bishop; 
because by that year, more than 500,000 Indians were 
already converted, and, more than 80,000 baptized, in 





Views of Sisters of Charity Sanitarium, Santa Fe. 



whose instruction and conversion 50 religious of this 
Order attended, without there being there, from the first 
discovery until then, any other order, and there were 
150 Indian pueblos, and in each a church in which a mass 
was celebrated, and the Holy Sacraments were administered ; 
and a good villa had been peopled with Spaniards; there 
were some ranches and estates belonging to them; and the 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 721 

land, whose natives they had reduced to our Holy Faith, was 
of more than 400 leagues, in traveling which many days 
were spent, while the travel was made through innumerable 
enemies with great dangers and inconveniences. 

"In view of this. His Majesty ordered the same year, 1631, 
that upon the subject of erecting a Cathedral church, the 
Archbishop and Viceroy should send information, and 
although a report was -sent, it has not seemed convenient 
to execute the project until that kingdom is more advanced 
and quiet, for in the year 1644, the natives grew so restless 
that they killed the governor, although for their reduction 
and pacification, thirty religious of Saint Francis, men of 
exemplary life had been sent from the Province of the Holy 
Gospel in Mexico, in the year 1627, and, from that date on, 
it has been the custom to conduct many others at the expense 
of the royal treasury. 

"In the year 1645, there were 25 doctrinates of the order 
of Saint Francis, with 60 religious, which continued the in- 
struction and teaching of these Indians, towhom His Majesty 
gave as alms 42,000 pesos (?) a year, that they might be 
preserved. 

"Father Fr. Alonso de Benavides, who was custodian of 
these Provinces and conversions, and who, by order of the 
Viceroy and his prelate, came to this court in the year 1630, 
and made the memorial referred to concerning every thing, 
printed it, and gave it to his Majesty. Among other things 
he says, there were seen in it many notable things. 

"There are in these provinces many rich silver, gold, and 
turquoise mines; there is an abundance of wheat, corn, beans, 
chic-peas, ientels, peas, pumpkins, melons, and all classes of 
vegetables, grapes and other fruits, gardens, pine forests, 
with great abundance of pine nuts, (piiiones) many cattle, 
buffalo and sheep, and cows said to be from Cibola, whose 
wool is like that of the vigogue (of great estimation;) hairy 
stock, mules, horses, deer, hares, rabbits, bears, wolves, 
eagles, and other animals, and a great diversity of winged 
stock, many large rivers abounding in fish, and good salt 
deposits. 

"Generally, the temperature in these Provinces is very cold 
in winter, so that the largest rivers freeze and are crossed 



722 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

over the ice, and so their inhabitants employ stoves and 
many fires; and, in order to be able to say mass, there is a 
fire-pan at the altar, and in summer the heat is very great." * 

* 1 am fully convinced that both Calle and Frejes wrote their 
stories on the discovery and conquest of New Mexico from mere 
traditions; that neither of them ever saw the reports of Cabeza de 
Vaca, Niza, Coronado, De Bustamante, Gallegos, Barrardo, Espejo, 
Onate, Villagra, De Varg-as and the rest of the eye witnesses like Father 
Benavides. The reader having now read in the preceding- chapters the 
very words of these discoverers, conquerors and priests, can readily 
see how great was the error Calle and Frejes fell in, and can now 
account for the many erroneous histories written on New Mexico by 
authors who drew their information from Calle and Frejes. I feel 
that I have performed a valuable public service in having thus shown 
to the world the truth about the history of New Mexico and the errors 
of many of said writers, and they are many yes, myriads of them. 
The Author. 



APPENDIX THIRD. 



The object of the author in giving here a list of the Fran- 
ciscan martyrs who were assassinated by the Indians in 
New Mexico, in the tirst epochs of its discovery and con- 
quest, is to inform the reader of the faith of those holy men 
who left their homes, their families and their country in 
order to enter unknown and far off lands inhabited by num- 
berless tribes of ' savage Indians without the hope of any 
better reward than a sure martyrdom which, however, se- 
cured, undoubtedly, to them the enjoyment of life eternal. 

The Franciscan Fathers and Friars, who with their blood 
moistened the virgin soil of the then unknown Province of 
New Mexico, were the following, namely: Juan de Padilla, 
Juan de la Cruz, Louis Escalone, Francisco Lopez, Agustin 
Rodriguez, Juan de Santa Maria, Francisco Letrado, Martin 
de Arvide, Francisco Porras, Pedro de Miranda, Pedro de 
AvilayAyala, Alonso Hill de Avila, Jose de Espeleta, Juan 
de Jesus Maria, Jose Trujillo, Manuel Beltran, Francisco 
Casafias de Jesus Maria, Francisco Corvera, Antonio Mo- 
reno, Jose de Arvizii, Antonio Carbonelli and Domingo 
Saraoz. 

Besides those 22 just mentioned, there were, in 1680,18 
others, who died at the hands of the Indians, when the latter 
rose in revolt against Governor Otermin in 1680. Certain it 
is that the last 18 are not considered as martyrs, either by 
the church or by the Franciscan order, according to the 
account given of the death of said first martyrs, and 
of the last 18, by Rev. Father James H. Defouri in his 
work entitled "Martyrs of New Mexico," which is the 
authority on which the author rests this appendix. We 
have already given an account of the 18 Indians who died in 
1680, in another part of this work, as well as of the greater 
part of the others mentioned, but in this appendix an 
additional word is dedicated to each one of them with the 
object mentioned, and to set their history in clearer light. 

Fr. Juan de Padilla— From Andalusia, before coming to 



724 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

New Mexico, was guardian of the college of Tzapotlan, a 
post he held until 1540, when he, accompanied by Father 
Marcos Niza, undertook the voyage with Coronado. The 
Indians assassinated him at Gran Quivira (ante) on Novem- 
30, 1542. 

Pr. Juan de la Cruz — A native of France, but of unknown 
family, also accompanied Coronado together with Fr. Juan 
de Padilla, Fr. Francisco Lopez and other priests as choir 
director, according to Torquemada, and w^as assassinated in 
the neighborhood of Tiguex in 1542. Defouri says that Juan 
de la Cruz remained in New Mexico when Coronado re- 
turned. That is an error, as neither Coronado, nor Cas- 
taneda, nor Jaramillo say anything about it; Castaneda and 
Jaramillo, as we have already seen, say that Fathers Juan de 
Padilla and Lopez were the only Spaniards that remained in 
New Mexico, accompanied by the Portuguese, Andres del 
Campo. 

Fr. Luis de Escalone — Who also accompanied Coronado in 
1540, according to Defouri, a thing not found in any other 
authority except Defouri, was murdered near Tiguex in 
1541. 

Fr. Francisco Lopez — Not the same one murdered by the 
Pecos Indians, was assassinated in December, 1581. 

Fr. Agustin Rodriguez (Fray Ruiz)— Born at Ayamonte, 
province of Andalusia, assassinated in December, 1581 (ante) 
a few days after the murder of Father Francisco Lopez. 

Fr. Juan de Santa Maria— Catalanian by birth, was mur- 
dered near the Sandia mountains (county of Bernalillo) in the 
fall of 1581. 

Fr. Francisco Letrado — Native of Castile, was murdered 
by the Indians of Zuni on February 22nd, 1630. 

Fr. Martin de Arvide— Native of thePortof San Sebastian, 
in Cantabria, was murdered on February 28, 1680, a few 
days after the murder of Father Letrado, who, as we have 
seen, was murdered on the 22nd of the same month. The 
Ziia Indians killed Father Arvide. 

Fr. Francisco Porras— Of Villanueva de los Infantes, of 
whom history relates that while he catechized the Indians of 
Moqui, the Moqui chief brought him one of his children, a 
boy 12 years old, who was blind from birth, saying to the 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 725 

Father: "If your God is as powerful as you say, ask him to 
give my son his eyesight," and that the Father then kneel- 
ing, prayed for a while, then placed on his hand the saliva of 
his own mounth, and, mixing it with a little earth, placed it 
over the eyes of the child saying: "Epheta,"' wherewith 
the child instantly recovered his eyesight, one thousand 
Indians being converted then. Father Porras went to 
Gualpi from Moqui, where he was assassinated by means 
of poison administered him by the Indians on June 28th, 
1633. When he realized the proximity of his death, as 
related by Father Agustin de Ventacut in his Franciscan 
menology, he knelt down before Father Francisco de San 
Buenaventura, who was the Priest at Gualpi and pronounced 
the following words, "In te Domine, speravi,'' and when he 
got to the words: "In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiri- 
tum meum,"' he fell dead on the ground. 

Fr. Pedro de Miranda — From Mexico, at least from there 
he came to New Mexico, the date and place of his birth being 
alike unknown. He was assassinated at the pueblo of Taos 
on December 28th, 1631. 

Fr. Pedro de Avila y Ayala— Whose date and place of birth is 
also unknown, the only thing known about him being that he 
came to New Mexico from the Peninsula of Yucatan, and was 
assassinated by the Acoma Indians, October 7, 1672. 

Fr. Alonso Hill de Avila — Nothing is known, about the 
birth of this priest. On January 28, 1675, the Apaches 
made a sudden attack on the Pueblo of Senecii, (near Socorro), 
killing nearly all the Indians of the pueblo, and among them. 
Father Alonzo. The priests that died during the insurrection 
of 1680 were 21, as we have already said, namely, Juan Ber- 
nal, Juan Domingo de Vera, Fernando de Velasco, Juan 
Bautista Pro, Tomds de Torre, Luis de Morales, Matias 
Rendon, Antonio de Mora, Juan de la Ped roza, Manuel Tinoco, 
Francisco Antonio Lorenzana, Juan Talaban, Jos4 Montes de 
Oca, Fr. Antonio Sdnchez de Pro, Fr. Luis Maldonado, Juan 
Fr. Juan del Bal, Jos6 de Figueroa, Agustin de Santa Maria, 
Jos6 de Espeleta, Jose Trujillo and Juan de Jesus Maria. 

Fr. Manuel Beltran— Of whose birth nothing is known. 
Assassinated in the church of the Tanos Indians in 1684, by 
said Indians 



726 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

Fr. Francisco Casanas de Jesus Maria— From Barcelona^ 
was assassinated by the Jemes Indians in 168-4. 

Fr. Francisco Corvera and Antonio Morena — Were at the 
time of their death cures of San Ildefonso and Namb^, res- 
pectively. On June 4th, Father Corvera was visiting Father 
Morena at the pueblo of Nambe, and while they were sleep- 
ing, the Indians of Namb^ murdered them. 

Fr. Jos6 de Arvizii and Antonio Carbonelli — The first one, 
from Spain, and the second from Italy, they were murdered 
by the Indians of the pueblo of San Cristoval on June -ith, 
1696. Carbonelli was visiting that day Father Arvizii who 
was parish priest of San Cristoval, while Carbonelli was 
parish priest of Taos. 

Fr. Domingo de Sara6z — Nothing is known of the antece- 
dents of this priest. He was assassinated by the Indians of 
the Pueblo of Santa Ana, by means of the poisonous herbs 
given him in his meal, in the year 1631 ; the date of his poison- 
ing, that is, the month and day, is not known. 



1 



APPENDIX FOURTH^SKETGHES. 



Jacobo J. Aragon. 

Jacobo J. Aragon, is a native of San Miguel county where he was 
born 47 years ago. He was educated in the public schools of the 
Territory and attended for many years the Nelson Brothers College 
at Spring-field. Ohio. Later he went to Kansas City and there eng-ag^ed 
in the real estate business. 





.lacobo J. Aiagon. 

His health failing- Mr. Aragon returned to New Mexico and settled 
in the county of Sierra, where he served one term as county superin- 
tendent of schools. 

In 1900, Mr. Arag-on moved to El Paso, Texas, where he re-entered 
in the dry goods business on a larg-e scale under the firm name of 
Arag-on Brothers & Co. Later Mr. Arag-on moved to Lincoln, Lin- 
coln county, where he has been eng-ag-ed in the mercantile and sheep 
business, the firm name being Aragon Brothers. 

Mr. Aragon received the nomination for delegate to the Constitu- 
tional Convention held in Santa Fe from October 3 to November 22, 
1910, by acclamation and was endorsed by the Republicans and Dem- 
ocrats of Lincoln county. 



vzc 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



E- G. Abbott- 
Edmund Clarence Abbott, born Augusts, llSTl, at Glenwood, Iowa. 
Parents moved to Newton, Kansas, in 1875. Settled at Garden City, 
Kansas, in 1893. Educated in public schools of Garden City, and 
graduated from the Kansas State Agricultural College at Manhattan, 
Kansas, in the class of 1893. Studied law in the office of his father who 
was judge of the 27th judicial district of Kansas. Admitted to the bar 
in 1894, and moved to Colorado where he practiced until 1897, moved 




E. C. AblK)tt. 



to Taos and began to practice law. Elected to the legislature in the 
November election of 1900. A])pointed district attorney of the first 
judicial district in March, 1901. Reappointed three times consecutively. 
Resigned in 1906, and again elected to the legislature for the Counties 
of Santa Fe and Sandoval in 1907. Appoiflted assistant United States 
attorney by Attorney General Bonaparte. Resigned the appointment 
of district attorney for the Counties of Santa Fe, Taos and Torrance. 
Re-appointed for another term, which position he was filling at the time 
of the transition from territorial to state government. Resides in 
Santa Fe since January, 1901. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



729 



R 



Oman 



A. B, 



aca. 



Hon. Roman A. Baca was a native of New Mexico and descendant 
of an illustrious and prominent family: during- the greater part of his 
life he devoted his energies, prestige and wealth to the betterment of 




Roman A. Baca. 



education, agriculture and stock raising in New Mexico. Don Roman 
was the most noted Indian fighter of his time and as such was the ter- 
ror of the Navajoes, Utes and Comanches. He made his mark as a 
legislator, having served as Speaker in 1875 and as member in several 
terms of the House of Representatives, as well as a patriot, having 
served during the civil war as captain in the army of the Union. 



730 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



R 



Oman 



L.B 



aca. 



Hon. Roman Liberate Baca, the son of Don Roman A. Baca, like 
his disting-uished father, has rendered his State many valuable ser- 
vices, having- filled, with credit to himself, the following public 
positions: Member of the city council of the City of Santa F^, |^for 




Roman L. Baca. 



several terms: chief clerk of the Territorial House of Representatives- 
in 1895) and in 1901: member of said House of Representatives again in 
1903; Speaker of the House in 1907, and was again elected member of 
the first legislature of the State of New Mexico at the first State elec- 
tion held Nov. 7, 1911, and made Speaker of the first House of Repre- 
sentatives of the State. Mr. Roman L. Baca is a native of New Mex- 
ico and was educated in St. Michael's College. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



731 



Juan Maria Baca. 

Don Juan Maria Baca, was born on the 23rd of September, 1818. 
His parents were Luis Baca, and Dona Rufina Maestas. Don Juan 
Maria, did not receive the benefit of any education, and what little 
he knew of i^eading-, writing- and counting he learned partly in some of 
the modest and unpretentious private shools of those times, and mostly 
by his own efforts. He was a man of very clear practical intellect. 
He was married in 1844 to Miss Dolores Sandoval, daughter of Don. 




Juan Maria Baca. 



Francisco Sandoval and Dona Guadalupe Galleg-os of San Isidro,. 
county of Sandoval, at present. Shortly after the marriag-e, they, 
changed residence from Jemez to Upper Las Vegas, in San Miguel 
County. Mr. Baca died August 31, 1872, and Mrs. Baca, died 
.January 4th, 1879. Their union was blessed with eleven children, 
Florencio, Bartolo, Benito, Vicenta, Abundio No 1. Eluterio, Fran- 
cisco, Domingo and Antonio (twins), Juanita and Abundio No. 2. 
Of these the two Abundios, Bartolo and Vicenta died infants before- 
the death of the parents, and since their death, Benito, Florencio and 
Antonio have followed them to the grave, four therefore, being stilL 
alive, namely Eluterio, Francisco, Domingo and Juanita. 



732 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



Benito Baca. 

Benito Baca, was born at Canon de Jemes, in March 1848, but was 
brought up to manhood at Upper Las Vegas, New Mexico, in the 
County of San MigueL He learned his A. B. C, some reading and 
writing in Spanish in the schools of those times which he attended 
until St. Michael's College was opened which he attended for two 




Benito Baca. 



years, having previously received his first English instructions from 
Mr. Milnor F. Rudulph of Rincon del Tecolote, now Kociada. 

In 1867 he went to St. Louis University where he stayed until the 
spring of 1868, leaving the University then to come and accept a posi- 
tion at Hays City with the new firm of Otero and Sellar. He worked 
for this firm for three years. He died June 21, 1879. at La Constancia, 
the home of his father-in-law, Don Manuel A. Otero, immediately 
following the close of a political campaign he had waged against the 
Republican party, he being a candidate as Delegate to Congress. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



733 



Eleuterio Baca. 

Eleuterio Baca, was born at upper Las Veg-as, county of San Migue], 
February 20th, 1853. He learned to read and write with the native 
teachers of those times, first among- whom were Don .Jesus M. Bernal, 
Simon Sandoval and Jos^ Manuel Leyva. In the fall of 1862, he 
entered St. Michael's College in Santa Fe, and stayed there till the 




Eleuterio Baca. 



spring of 1863. He returned in 1864 remaining- until 1866, when he was 
sent to the college the Saint Michael's Brothers had at Mora. In 
November 1867, he was sent to the St. Louis University, Missouri, and 
there he graduated with the highest honors of his class, in the classical 
courses of said institution on June 27, 1872. Mr. Baca has served as 
preceptor, and as such he has served the youth of New Mexico for 
over 26 vears. 



734 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OP NEW MEXICO. 



Tomas D- Gabeza de Baca. 

Don Tomas Dolores Cabeza de Baca is a descendant from the family, 
Cabeza de Baca, which has fig-ured so much in the pages of the history 
of New Mexico, and his wife, Doiia Estefana Delg-ado, is a descendant 




1) >n T.muis 1 1. Cabeza tic liaca. 



of the illustrious soldier, Manuel Del^ado, head and trunk of the 
numerous Delg-ado family in New Mexico. The sons of Don Tomas. 
Manuel, Daniel, Nicasio. Ezequiel, Graciano and Antonino, have all 
figured prominently in public life, and are very useful citizens. Don 
Tomas died in the winter of 1904-5 at Las Veoas. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



735 



Hon. Ezequiel Gabeza de Baca. 

Mr. Ezequiel Cabeza de Baca is a member of the most distinguished 
families in New Mexico, his father, Don Tomas Dolores Cabeza de 
Baca, now dead, having- been one of the leading- men of his time, both 
politically and as a private citizen. 

The subject of this brief sketch has resided at Las Vegas, New Mex- 




Hoii. Ezequiel Cabeza de Baca. 



ico, all his life, and has been engaged for many years as one of the 
editors of the leading democratic Spanish journal of New Mexico, "La 
Voz del Pueblo," published in Las Veg-as. 

Mr. Baca enjoys the distinction of being- the first lieutenant g-overnor 
of the State of New Mexico, elected as the first state election held on 
the 7th day of November, 1911, and of defeating- in that election one of 
the most popular Republican leaders of the state, the Hon. Malaquias 
Martinez. 



736 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



Kirby Benedict. 

Chief Justice of New Mexico from 1858 to 1866. Died in Santa F^ in 
1875. Judg-e of the District Court. First Judicial District, 1853-8. 
Through the efforts of Judg-e Benedict a law was passed by the legis- 
lature in 1859, to finish a revision of the laws of New Mexico, which 





« 








fe 




^^^■■>_^'' 


i^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H 






^^» 




PHP^ 







Klrby Benedict. 



under the title of "'Revised Code of New Mexico,'" had been com- 
menced in the year of 1856. Under this act of 1859 a commission, com- 
posed of Judg-e Benedict, Facundo Pino and Attorney C. P. Clever, 
was appointed by the g-overnor in 1862. This commission failed to 
accomplish the work because one of its members, Pino, died before the 
completion of the work. After that Judg-e Benedict's name does not 
appear in public life. 






[LLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



"37 



Gasimiro Barela. 




Casimlro Barela. 



Don Casimiro was born in Rio Arriba county March 4th, 1847. 
His parents were Don Jos^ M. Barela, and Dona Maria de J. 
Abeytia, domiciled in Mora, a place they left a little before Casimiro 
was "born. At the end of the war with Mexico his parents returned to 
Mora. His first education he received in private schools. Later on, 
he entered the service of the Rev. Father Juan B. Salpointe. parish 
priest of Mora, and subsequently Archbishop of New Mexico, under 



738 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

whose charge he received considerable instruction. In J863, he con- 
ducted a store of his father at El Coyote, and that same year com- 
menced to haul freig-ht. He moved over with his parents to Trinidad. 
Cofcrado, in January, 1867. In May of the same year he settled at 
El Rito de San Francisco now called Barela, Colorado. 

In 1869 he'avas elected justice of the peace of the precinct of El Rito 
del Valle de San Francisco. In 1870, elected assessor of the county 
of Las Animas, and in 1871, member to the territorial legislature of 
Colorado, and during- the session of the legislature in 1872, he suc- 
ceeded in having the laws of the Territory published in Spanish. 
Was again elected to the legislature in 1873, and sheriff of the county 
of Las Animas in 1874. In 1875, was elected delegate te the constitu- 
tional convention which met in Denver, in December of the same year. 
As a member of the. convention Barela succeeded in- having inserted 
in the state consitution the i^rovision that the laws of the state should 
be published in the Spanish language for a term of 25 years and 
another clause to the effect that no educational qualification could 
pass the general assembly against the voters of the state for a term of 
25 years. 

In November 1876, at the first state election he was chosen state sen- 
ator, has since been re-elected successively, and his present term 
expires on December 31, 1912. 

Senator Barela, while still a senator in 1882, was elected, by the 
unanimity of both parties, county judge, for a term of three years. 
He served one year, iCnd then resigned in order to attend as senator 
to the general assembly of the state. In 1884, without any interrup- 
tion to his services as senator, he was elected by both parties as 
county treasurer of Las Animas county. He has been, for two terms 
president of the senate. 

The commission charged with the duty of the construction of the 
state carpitol building, on selecting 15 persons out of 700 candidates to 
pi ape their pictures in the cupula of the state capitol, selected Mr. 
Bareia as one of the 15, being the only one. among the chosen few, 
who is^living today. On the 60th anniversary of his birth, March 4th, 
1907, the senate celebrated that event, and without any partisan views, 
addresses were made by several senators congratulating him. A testi- 
monial was presented to him certifying to his intergity as a legislator 
ani a man. signed by the lieutenant governor and all the senators. 
In addition he was presented by his colleagues with a silver set engraved 
with his initials. Senator Barela has also held in Colorado the post 
of consul to the Mexican Republic for 12 years, and also counsel of 
Costa Rica for years and is to this day consul of that republic. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



739 



Holm O- B 



ursum. 



Mr. Bursum is actually one of the leaders of the Republican party. 
His accession to the public posts of greater prestig-e and of the highest 
importance, was as rapid as it was surprising to those who did not 
know him thoroughly; but to those who had the opportunity of weighing 




Holm ( ). Bursum. 



him in political and social questions he was nothing more than the log- 
ical consequence of the labors of an enterprising and far seeing genius. 
His clear talent and his unerring judgment placed him far above his 
enemies, and insured for him the respect, esteem and confidence of tlie 
great majority of the people of New Mexico. Mr. Bursum was the 
candidate for govei^nor of New Mexico at the first state election held 
November 7. 1911, but was defeated by W. C. McDonald, Democrat, his 
opponent. 



"40 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



Dn. Albino Chacon- 




Don. All)im) Chacon. 



Don Albino Chacon, wlio rendered New Mexico valuable public ser- 
vices under tlie governments of Mexico and the United States, was one 
of Armijo's captains at the time General Kearny entered New Mexico 
and whose valuable services to the public are referred to in another 
part of this work. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



741 



Rafael Chacon. 

Captain Rafael Chacon, a resident now of Trinidad, Colorado, 
is also a son of New Mexico, being- a son of Don Albino 
Chacon and of Dona Refug-io Lopez. Mr. Chacon received his 
primary education in private schools of New Mexico, and made his 
last studies as military cadet in the Military College of Mexico. In 




Rafael Chacon. 



1846, when Kearny entered New Mexico, Don Rafael was as yet a 
young- soldier of 13 years, and accompanied Armijo as far as Caiioncito 
where it was hoped Armijo would give battle to the invading army. 
As we have already given an account of that event in the narrative we 
have given of the same, we shall now continue to relate the services 
which this patriot rendered the American government. What follows 
was taken from the official records. 

''This certifies that Rafael Chacon enlisted from Taos county, 



742 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

New Mexico, on the 13th day of August, 1861, to serve three years or 
during- the Civil War, and was mustered into the United States service 
at Fort Union, New Mexico, as captain of company K, 1st Regiment 
New Mexico Volunteer Infantry, later changed to cavalry, Colonel 
Ceran St. Vrain commanding, who resigned and was succeeded by 
Colonel Christopher Carson. 

This regiment was organized at Santa Fe and Fort Union, New 
Mexico from July 1, to August 13. 1861, to serve for three years. 
Operating against Sibley's invasion of New Mexico .January to May. 
1862. Battle of Valverde, February 21, 1862. Duty at Ft. Union and 
Albuquerque, New Mexico, till April, 1862. Pursuit of Confederate 
forces, April 1.3-22, with engagements at Albuquerque, Algodones, 
Peralta, and Los Pinos Grove, and at the latter place fired the last shot 
at rear guard of the enemy. Conducted four hundred prisoners to 
Fort Union, marching from Peralta through Albuquerque, Glorieta. 
Pecos, and Las Vegas, latter part of April, 1862. Officers and enlisted 
men not selected for retention in service were mustered out May 31, 18ti2, 
and the remaining portion consolidated with like members of the 2nd, 
3rd, 4th and 5th regiments. New Mexico Infantry, to form a laew regi- 
ment designated as the 1st New Mexico volunteer cavalry. Trans- 
ferred to 1st New Mexico volunteer cavalry as captain of company E, 
May 31, 1862. Promoted Major, March 2nd, 1864. With 1st cavalry 
operating against Navajo and Apache Indians in the department of 
New Mexico and Arizona, and gaEris'orii duty by detachments at Forts 
Stanton, McRae, Wingate, Craig, Canby, Union, and other points in 
that district, participating in numerous expeditions a-Bd skirmishes 
with Indians, till August, 1864. Temporarily in command of Fort 
Wingate in 1862 and 1863. With expedition to Arizona, accompanying 
government Civil Officers to establish the New Territory, Ft. Whipple, 
and the city of Prescott, from December, 1863, to March, 1864. Com- 
manding officer at Ft. Stanton in 1864. Mustered out September 2. 
1864, by reason of expiration cf term of service, and honorably dis- 
charged from service. 

"The said Rafael Chacon was made captain of company E, May .31, 
1862, when the regiment was organized into Cavalry. 

"March 2, 1864, he was promoted to Major of the regiment. 

"In 1862, he commanded the escort consisting of his own company, 
conveying about 450 C'onfederate prisoners to Fort Union, New Mexico. 
With his company he brought about 5,000 Navajo Indians from Fort 
Wingate, N. M., to Santa Fe, N.. M., to be transferred to Fort Sumner 
reservation in New Mexico. He was in command of the escort of the 
first civil officers from Fort Wingate to organize the Territory of 
Arizona and to establish Fort Whipple, in Arizona. 

"He took part in engagements at Valverde (Fort Craig), Albuquer- 
que, Algodones, Peralta, Los Pinos, Fort Stanton, New Mexico, and 
Navajo, Arizona, and numerous engag'ements with the Indians in 
New Mexico and Arizona, and achieved a gallant record for efficiency 
as an officer and meritorious servicfe. 



ft 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 743 

"In 1S55, he enlisted from Taos County, New Mexico, to serve six 
months, as 1st Sergeant of company B, St. Vrain's Batallion of Vol- 
unteers, commanded by Captain Francisco Gonzales, against the Ute 
and Apache Indians, and was eng-aged in several engagements until 
July of said year, when the Indians surrendered. 

"He is a member of Trinidad Post, No. 25, Department of Colorado 
and Wyoming, Grand Army of the Republic, and Military Order of 
Loyal Legion, <^'olorado Commandry. 

"He held office as Chief Clerk of New Mexico Territorial Senate, 
one term: State Senator of New Mexico, one term; .Justice of the Peace 
in Taos County, New Mexico, two terms: Sheritf and Treasurer of Las 
Animas County, Colorado, one term. 

"He was Colonel on staff of Governor Eaton of Colorado with 
National Guard, one term, and Notary Public in Colorado for about 
twenty years."' 



"44 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



Attorney Eusebio Chacon. 




I 



Kusebio Chacon. 



Hon. Eusebio Chacon, native of New Mexico but now resident of 
T)-inidad. Colo., where he is practising- law and is Assistant District 
Attorney. Mr. Chacon is the author of several writing's on New Mex- 
ico history. His valuable services to the public are referred to in 
another part of this work. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



745 



Hon. Jacobo Gh 



avez. 




Hon. Jacobo Chavez. 



Hon. Jacobo Chavez was born in Valencia county, July 15, 1860. 
His parents were Don Francis Antonio Chavez and Dona Juan Maria 
Chavez, both members of the prominent Chavez family. Don Jacobo 
received hiseducation in the University of Saint Louis. Mo., and Saint 
Michael's College in Santa Fe, N. M. Don Jacobo has occupied the 
following public positions. Treasurer of Valencia county from 1894 
to 1896. County Clerk of Valencia county from 1895 to 1900. Member 
of the Territorial Legislative Council from 1905 to 1W9. Superinten- 
dent of Insurance of New Mexico from 1907 to the present time (1912). 



"46 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



Captain Manuel Delgado. 



z^^m^ 






. 




^ 




^^^1^ 



Captain Mniuiel Delgado. 



Captain Manuel Delgado, founder ot the Delg-ado family in New 
Mexico. Don Manuel Delgado served with distinction in the Spanish 
army, foug-ht in many battles and was wounded in several of them. 
For his valuable military services he received the promotion from 
a private to the rank of captain. See sketches of his descendants which 
follow. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OP NEW MEXICO. 



747 



Felipe S. Delgado. 

Mr. Felipe S. Delg-ado was the son of Don Manuel Delgado. Don 
Manuel was the son of Don Marcos and Don Marcos was the son of 
the first Manuel Delgado, founder of the family, who came to New 
Mexico as an officer of the Spanish Army. Don Felipe was the 
bx'Other of Simon, Fernando, Felipe, Jr., and Juan Pablo. All of 




Felipe S. Delgado. 



these brothers figured in public life as prominently as their distin- 
guished great g-rand- father. All of them filled honorable positions 
and all were merchants. Don Felipe S., the subject of this sketch was 
appointed by President Lincoln as Superintendent of Indian Ag-encies 
in New Mexico. He also served several times as member of the Le- 
gislature, as Probate Judge of Santa Fe County, County Commissioner 
and member of the School Board. Don Felipe married Doiia Benigna 
Garcia. From that marriage the following children were born. Lux, 
Antonio, Manuela, Emilio and Alfredo. 



'48 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



Juan Pablo Delgado. 

Don Juan Pablo Delgado was one of the five sons of Don Manuel 
Delg-ado, who was the son of Don Marcos and grandson of Captain 
Manuel Delg-ado, the founder of the family of that name in New Mex- 
ico. Captain Delgado enlisted in the royal army of Spain in 1776 as 




Juan Pal)lo Delgado. 



private and was promoted, by degrees, for valuable and meritorious 
services, to the rank of captain. While in the military service he 
came to New Mexico, already a married man, in 1778, settled and died 
the country. Don Juan Pablo Delgado filled several public 



in 



positions in his lifetime, both under the Mexican and the American 

government. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



•49 



Felipe B. Delgado. 

Mr. Felipe B. Delg-ado, also a son of Don Manuel Delg-ado, lived in 
Sarta F^ all his life, was educated in St. Louis, Mo., and devoted his 
whole life to the mercantile business, having managed, until the day of 
his death, a mercantile establishment, and was, in the days of the fa- 




Felipe B. Delgado. 



mous Santa Fe trail, one of the principal owners of mules and ox trains 
freighting- from Santa Fe, to Independence, Mo., and from Santa Fe 
to Chihuahua. In February, 1869, Mr. Delg-ado married Miss Lucia 
Ortiz, daughter of Captain Caspar Ortiz y Alarid, of Santa Fe. From 
this marriage there was an issue of fifteen children of which only the 
following are living: Mag-dalena. Pablo. Ana. Lola Lucia, Pilar, 
Ernestina, Geronimo and Miguel. Don Felipe B. died in Santa Fe 
November 22, 1908. 



"50 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



Jose 



E. F 



ernandez- 



Jos^ Emilio Fernandez was born at Trinidad, Colorado, April ]0. 
1882, being- the son of Mr. Jesus Maria Fernandez, a prominent fig-ure 
in the 70's in Taos County, New Mexico, and Mrs. Rosita Martinez. 

Mr. Fernandez was educated in the country schools of Colorado. 
At the ag-eof 15 he taught a private school at Castskill, New Mexico, 
and started his first public school, at Gulnore, Colorado, December 




Jose K. Fernandez 

12, 1898. He taug-ht in the public schools until September, 19U7, when 
he took charg-e of "El Progreso," of Trinidad, Colorado. At 14 Mr. 
Fernandez acted as assistant postmaster at Madrid, Colorado. 

Since 1907 he has been writing several Spanish works and in May, 
1911, he wrote in Spanish entitled "Forty Years as Legislator, or 
Biography of Senator Casiroiro Barela." At present Mr. Fernandez 
is writing Senator Barela's Biography in English. 

Mr. Fernandez has also been prominent in politics in Las Animas 
County for the last five years. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



751 



John Ellsworth Griffith. 

Born on a farm, Delaware County, Ohio, October 24th, 1864. 
Educated in country schools and normal schools at Prospect and 
Fostorio, Ohio. Graduated from Spencerian Business Col leg^e, Cleve- 
land, Ohio; Denison University, Granville, Ohio, and the Cincinnati 
Law School and admitted to the bar by the supreme and federal courts 




John Ellswortli Griffith. 



of Ohio in 1890. Taught in country and normal schools and after 
g-raduation located and practiced law at Marysville, Ohio, until 1898. 
While located at Marysville, including four years in Ohio legislature, 
the last two years was Speaker pro tem of the House. 

In June, 1898, came to New Mexico, located at Socorro, was 
appointed Clerk of the District Court of the Fifth District. 

He is Past Master of Masonic Blue Lodge, Past High Priest of Royal 
Arch Masons, Past Grand Patron Eastern Star of New Mexico, 32nd de- 
cree Mason. Shriner. Past Chancellor Commander K. of P. and an Elk. 



752 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



Nathan Jaffa. 

Nathan Jaffa was the last Secretary of the Territory of New Mexico, 
was born December 28, 1863, at Cassel, Germany. He left his native 
country while still a young boy and came to the United States, where 
he completed his education which was begun in the Fatherland. He 
has been actively identified with the business, public and political 
affairs of New Mexico for a number of years, is a banker and merchant 




Nathan Jaffa. 

at Roswell, N. M. He is a thirty-second degree Mason, a member of 
the Grand Lodge of New Mexico; was Master of Roswell Lodge No. 18 
for two years, and served several years as Excellent High Priest of Co- 
lumbia Royal Arch Chapter No. 7, at Roswell. Mr. Jaffa began his 
political career as a county commissioner of Chaves county and as 
evidence of his popularity was the first Republican ever elected to 
public office in that county. He was the first chairman of the board of 
trustees of the then town of Roswell, and for a number of years presi- 
dent of the Board of Education. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OP NEW MEXICO. 



■i3 



rion. Antonio Lucero. 

Hon. Antonio Lucero, Secretary of State, was born on a ranch, 
near Las Vegas, on the 6th day of October, 1863, and is, therefore 48 
year old. 

When 10 years old his parents moved into the town of Las Veg-as, 
where he has lived ever since. At the latter place he was sent to 




Hon. Antonio Lucero. 



private schools, until 1879, when he entered the College conducted by 
the .Jesuit Fathers at that place. He attended this school until 1S85. 

Married in 18113 and soon after his marriage he became assistant 
editor of La Voz del Pueblo. 

For the last ten years he has been instructor of Spanish in the Normal 
University of Las Vegas and High School of the same place doing 
this work in connection with his editorial work. 

He was also the chief clerk of the territorial legislative council in 
1895. He was elected Secretary of State at the first State election. 



754 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



Jeremiah Leahy. 

Mr. Jeremiah Leahy, was born in Ottawa, State of Illinois, Sep- 
tember 15th, 1861 — Educated in public school of Valparaiso, Indiana. 
Taug-ht school in Living-ston county, Illinois. Read law and admitted 
to the })ar in Pontiac, in 1888. Came to Springer, New Mexico Decem- 
ber, 1888. Moved to Raton in 1891, to practice his profession. Ap- 
pointed District Attorney in 1897, and was re-appointed for several 
terms thereafter, was member of the Council in 1904, City Attorney of 
Raton, from 1892 to 1897, Has held many other public positions and 
stands very hig-h in the Republican party, and is a very useful and 
worthy citizen of New Mexico. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



"55 



Napoleon B. Laughlin. 

Judg-e N. B. Laug'hlin was born in Illinois on the 23rd day of July, 
184-1. He came to New Mexico in 1879, located in Santa Fe and began the 
practice of law in which he has been very successful. Judge Laughlin 
was appointed Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of New Mexico 
and served as such from 1894-1898. He has also been a member of the 
Legislative Council. 




Napoleon B. Laughlin. 



Judge Laughlin is a self made man. He, like Abraham Lincoln, did 
not have the advantage of an education and had to educate himself, 
beginning to learn reading and writing at the age of twenty-one all by 
himself. His prominence in life as a citizen and as a lawyer emphasizes 
the truth that a man can be in this life a useful and able man, even if 
born in povei^ty, if he has tlae stamina, energy, will and courage to 
fight the way to the top of the ladder. 



756 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



jalomon 



Lu 



na. 



Don Salomon Luna is the son of Don Antonio Jose Luna and Dona 
Isabel Baca, both belong-ing- to two of the oldest and most illustrious 
Spanish families of New Mexico. Don Salomon was born at Los Lunas, 
October 18, 1858. He received his education partly at St. Michael's 




Salomon Luna. 



College, in Santa Fe, and partly at the St. Louis University. Don 
Salomon is one of the leaders of the Republican party in New Mexico. 
He is a member of the national executive committee of that party. In 
the year 1881, he married Miss Adelaida Otero, daughter of Don 
Manuel R. Otero and Dona Ana Maria Otero. Don Salomon resides 
at Los Lunas. In October, IDIO, lie was one of the delegates to the 
constitutional convention. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



(Di 



Elisha Van Long. 

Judg-e E. V. Long-, was born in Indiana on the 7th day of March, 
1836, was educated in the same state and is a g-raduate of Fort Wayne 
College. Before getting- into the active practice of the law in 
his state he taught school for many years and was also a clerk in a 
store. He practiced law in Indiana with g-reat success distinguishing 
himself as a lawyer and receiving as a reward for his ability and 
uprightness the appointment of Circuit Judge of the Fourth Judicial 
District of Indiana in 1872. 




Klishii Villi liOiig. 



Prior to that time, in 1860, he had been editing a paper. He was a 
Delegate to the State Democratic Conventions from 1862-1884 and also 
a Delegate to the National Democratic Conventions in 1860 and 1876. 

In October, 1885, he was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court 
of New Mexico, in which position he served until 1889. While he was 
Chief Justice of New Mexico, the administration in New Mexico was 
all Democratic with Governor Ross at the head of the public affairs. 
Governor Ross undertook to summarily remove all the Republican offi- 
cials but Attorney General Wm. Breeden and the other Republican 



758 ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 

officials declined to submit to Governor Ross's arbitrarj- and unjusti- 
fiable acts and Mr. Ashenfelter, Ross's appointee brought the case into 
the courts. When the case reached the Supreme Court, Judg-e Long- 
rendered the decision of the court denying the Governor's right to 
remove the Attorney General or any other public officials on political 
grounds. For doing his duty in such a fearless manner, upholding the 
law against his party, he received much political criticism from his 
party friends but that did not hinder him from upholding the dignity 
of the court and the majesty of the law. Two other cases, of the 
greatest importance to the people of New Mexico, in which Judge Long 
again showed his courage and legal knowledge, were the cases of the 
Caiion del Agua and that of Las Vegas Grant. His decisions in both 
of these cases stand today as the leading and most important decisions 
of New Mexico on the principle of law and equity affected by said 
cases. Judge Long was very generally congratulated and admired 
when the jist of said cases were thoroughly understood, which fact 
has given the judge much personal pleasure. In the Las Vegas Grant 
case, his decision established principles which never before had been 
applied, at least in New Mexico, and the result will finally be in favor 
of all cummunities organized under the law of Community Grants. 
The last two mentioned decisions like the first one, made many enemies 
for the judge. His enemies remained quiet until the creation of the Court 
of Private Land Claims when Judge Long was about to be appointed 
as a member of that court but his enemies succeeded in inserting a 
proviso in the'act which created the court, that no resident of New 
Mexico or Arizona should be eligible as a judge for such a courts 
which was. of course, aimed at Judge Long and had its effect. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



(59 



Octaviano A. Larrazolo. 

Don Octaviano Ambrosio Larrazolo was born at Allende, State of 
Chihuahua, Mexico, on December 7th, 1859; his parents were Don 
Octaviano Larrazolo, and Dona Donaciana Corral de Larrazolo. In 
1870, he came to this country, under the protection of His Most Illus- 
trious Lordship, Don Juan Bautista Salpointe, at that time Apostolic 




Octaviano A. Larra/olo. 



Vicar of Arizona, and later on Archbishop of Santa F^. He made 
his course of studies at the College of Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 
187.5 and 1876. In 1878 he established himself at San Elizario, county 
of El Paso, Texas, where he was given charg-e of the public school of 
that town from that year to the end of the year 1884. In 1885 he was 
appointed deputy county clerk of said county of El Paso, the same 
year was appointed clerk of the federal courts at El Paso. 



760 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



Felix Martinez. 

Don Felix Martinez was born in the county of Taos, on the 29th of 
March, 1857. At Mora he attended the school of the Christian Brothers. 
His parents moved afterwards to Colorado. At the age of 14 he com- 
menced to work as an employee in a mercantile house. He continued 
for several vear working- at times in the mercantile business and at 




Fflix Martinez. 



times attending- school. Before attaining the age of 20 years he 
established a mercantile house at El Moro, Colorado, continuing- the 
same sul)sequently at Otero and Las Vegas, New Mexico. About the 
year 188(i, he engaged in the real estate business. In 1897 he visited the 
city of El Paso, where he established himself and again engaged in the 
real estate business with wonderful success. Very many are the enter- 
prises that have caused the prosperity of Ei Paso, of which he has l)een 
the chief promoter. Among them the ones that stand in bolder relief 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 761 

are: The Electric Car Service: The Potable Water Fountain Works; 
theUnion Depot; the Southwestern CementCompany; the Elephant Butte 
Irrigation Project, for the success of which Mr. Martinez directed the 
whole plan and also the campaign. To consummate this most important 
enterprise, Mr. Martinez displayed his good tact in interesting the 
Mexican government, and, by means of diplomacy, he succeeded in 
having an agreement entered into by the two governments which insures 
the success of the enterprise. This enterprise will cause the circula- 
tion of eight million dollars in New Mexico. 

From the age of 18 he began to become interested in political matters, 
adopting Democratic principles as his political creed. In 1884, he 
was nominated for county treasurer, and he had already gained such 
popularity, that, although the Republicans, in those times had been 
accustomed to carry the county of San Miguel by majorities from 
1500 to 2000 votes, he lost by only 200 votes. In 1886 he was elected 
county assessor. In 1888 he was elected representative to the legisla- 
tive assembly and 181)2 to the legislative council. From 1893 to 1897 
he was secretary of the District Court. To his efforts the establishment 
was due of the Insane Asylum and Normal School at Las Vegas. At 
the last meeting of the Presidents, Taft and Diaz, Mr. Martinez played 
a most important part. 

In the calamitous revolution in the Mexican Republic by F. I. 
Madero, November 1910, and happily ended in May 1912, Mr. Marti- 
nez co-operated with other prominent citizens in smoothing the diffi- 
culties that presented themselves as an obstacle to the suspension of 
hostilities. No service of his in favor of the public welfare has been for 
himself more important than that. In a letter addressed to La Voz 
del Pueblo, dated the 25th of April 1911. he expresses his satisfaction 
with these words: "I feel that, during my lifetime, I have never ct)n- 
tributed to any work as noble, and of such beneficial results as this 
one will result. '' 



r62 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



Captain Gandelario Martinez. 

Captain Candelario Martinez was born in Santa F^ on the 2nd day 
of February, 1845, was educated in St. Michael's college. At 18 years 
of age he enlisted in Co. A. 1st Infantry of N. M. Volunteers as pri- 
vate, was made first duty sergeant, also sergeant major of the regi- 




Captain Candelario Martinez. 



ment, and within five months of his first enlistment was commissioned 
second lieutenant, Co. B., same regiment, and when only 20 years of 
age he was commissioned 1st lieutenant and captain by brevet for 
meritorious services in re-capturing the United States mail that had 
been captured by the Kiowas and Comanche Indians in the plains; he 
was shot in the forehead; he was also wounded by the Apaches in 
southern Arizona. Is an attorney-at-law, and he has occupied the 
positions of postmaster and probate judge. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



•63 



John R. McFie. 

The history of the life of Judg-e McFie is very interesting-. John and 
Elizabeth McFie came to America in 1845, and settled in Washington 
county, Illinois. As a boy he attended the public schools of Illinois, 
and had the benefit of his father's private teaching until the civil war 
broke out, at which he burned with the desire of joining- the army. He 
marched with Sherman to the sea, serving- to the end of the war, and 




John K. McFie. 



was discharged in June, 1865. After the war he engaged in mer- 
chandising, and, next, in the study of law, and in 1870 was admitted 
to the bar of Illinois. Judge McFie came to the Territory in 1884, 
establishing himself at Las Cruces with his family. He served as 
Register of Public Lands until December, 1885. He afterwards joined 
Judge S. B. Newcomb, as partner at law. In March, 1889, he was 
appointed Judge of the Supreme Court of New Mexico. He served 
four years, then resumed his practice as a lawyer, but in 1897 he was 
again appointed Associate Justice by President McKinley and re- 
appointed again in 1901 and in 1905 by President Roosevelt.. 
His record in the Tril)unal is very remarkable. 



■64 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



Rev. Antonio J. Martinez. 




Rev. Antonio .1. Miirtine/-. 



Whose ^reat works and life have been referred to in other parts of 
this work. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO, 



765 



Malaquias Martinez. 







•m^ 




























f 



■ 



Malaquias Maitine/.. 



Don Malaquias Martinez y Valdez, a son of Hon. Santiago Valdez, 
was born in Taos on December 15th. 185!l. In 1890 he was elected 
senator from the counties of Taos. Rio Arriba and San Juan, and 
1903-5 he was again made senator. In the constitutional convention 
held in Santa Fe, in October 1910, he was a delegate from the County 
of Taos. Oil inspector, 1905 to 1912. 



766 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



Epimenio A. Miera. 

Hon. Epimenio Miera, is a self made man. He has gone through the 
crucible and made good. Mr. Miera received his education in 
the College of San Miguel in Santa Fe. He was born in Algodones, 
New Mexico, in the year 1865; began life as a clerk in a mercantile 
establishment owned by his uncle, Don Florencio Sandoval, at Algo- 




Epinienio A. Miera 



dones, from which place he moved to Cuba, New Mexico, started 
business in his own name and iTiade a success of it. In public life he 
has held the following positions: County Commissioner, and President 
of that board of Bernalillo county, from 1898 to 1903, and again 
elected member of the board of county commissioners of Sandoval 
county in the fall of 1903, when Sandoval county was created, was 
member of the legislative Council in 1906; member and speaker of 
House of Representatives in 1908; member of the Constitutional Con- 
vention in 1910, and member of the first State Senate in 1912. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



767 



Nestor Montoya. 




Nestor Montoya. 



Don Nestor Morftoya was born in the Old Town of Albuquerque in 
1862. He is a graduate of St. Michael's Golleg-e. Immediately after 
he had concluded his studies he was for five years assistant postmaster 
at the Capital. In 1884 he was appointed interpreter of the courts. 
From that date Mr. Montoya has continually held that post. In the 
year 1889, Mr. Montoya founded "La Voz del Pueblo.'" 



768^ ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



Governor W. G. McDonald. 




William r. McDonald, 

First State Governor, Inaugurated at SantJi 
Fe, January 15, 1012. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



769 



Manuel R. Otero. 




Manuel R. otero. 



Don Manuel Rito Otero is a son of Hon. Antonio Jose Otero, who 
was one of the first three judg-es of New Mexico, appointed by General 
Kearny in 1846. He was born at Peralta, N. M., on May 23, 1841. He 
received his education at the St. Louis University. The people of the 
County of Valencia honored him for eight consecutive years, with the 
oflBce of county clerk. From the year 1898 he has filled, and is now 
filling' for the seventh term the ofiice of register in the government land 
office at Santa F4. 



770 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



Modesto G. Ortiz. 




1 



Modesto C. Ortiz. 



Don Modesto is the eldest son of Don Mateo Ortiz and Dona Ig-nacia 
Cano. He was born in Santa F^ and received his primary education 
in a school conducted by the author of this work (his maternal 
brother) at St. Michael's Colleg-e, Santa F^, New Mexico. Having- fin- 
ished his studies, he earnestly dedicated himself to the study of the law 
and was admitted to the bar of the State. Besides his profession, Don 
Modesto has rendered valuable services to his people in public life. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



i » 



Caspar Ortiz y Alarid. 




Don Gaspar Ortiz y Alarid. 

Don Gaspar Ortiz y Alarid was one of the famous travelers over the 
celebrated Santa Fe trail, having-, nearly all his life, been the 
owner of ox as well as mule wag-on-freig-hting- trains between Independ- 
ence, Mo., and Santa F^, and between Santa Fd, Chihuahua and 
Durang-o, Mexico, besides conducting in Santa Fe a large mercantile 
establishment. Don Gaspar held many public offices in New Mexico, 
and served with distinction as captain of one of the New Mexico militia 
companies, on the Union side, during the last civil war. He died in 
Santa F^, N. M., in July, 1882. 



I 



772 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



Hon. Demetrio Perez. 




N 



Hon. Demetrio Perez. 



Don Demetrio is the son of Governor Albino P^rez, who was assas- 
sinated in 1837 (ante.) Don Demetrio kas filled in New Mexico 'with 
great credit many public positions, the last having been that of Auditor 
of Public Accounts. His valuable services to the public are referred 
to in another part of this work. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



73 



L. Bradford Prince- 
Mr. Prince was born in Flushing, New York. His father was a 
descendant of the Prince family of Long- Island. In 1858 he founded the 
"Flushing- Library Association." In 1861, he was a member of the 
Queen's County Commission. From 1866 to 1878, he was a deleg-ate to 
all the conventions of his State, New York, and in 1868 he was a dele- 
g-ate to the National Convention which nominated Grant for President. 
In 1870 he was a member of the leg-islature of New York, re-elected the 
next year, and ag-ain elected in 1873-74-75. In 1876-77 he was a Senator 
of New York in the State Senate, and was delegate to the National 




Ij. HnKlford I'rine-r. 

Convention that nominated Hayes for President. He was appointed, 
in 1879, Chief Justice of New Mexico. He arrived in Santa Fe the first 
Saturday of February, and on Monday following- he opened court at 
the Capital. He was a candidate for delegate to Cong-ress in 1884, 
ag-ainst Mr. Antonio Joseph, the Democratic candidate, and Rynerson, 
another candidate of his own party. In 1881 he was elected president 
of the" University of New Mexico. On April 2, 1889, he was appointed 
Governor of New Mexico by President Harrison for 4 years. He has 
also been a member of the New Mexico Senate. He has filled many 
other offices of honor and profit. He has written many works of g-reat 
merit, among them the ''History of New Mexico" (in English), and the 
last one entitled "The Struggle for Statehood," published in the year 
1910. Governor Prince is the father of the law Avhich authorized the 
establishment of the Spanish- American Normal school at El Kito. 



774 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



George W. Prichard. 

Colonel Georg'e W. Prichard has been an attorney at the New Mex- 
ico bar for more than a quarter of a century. He was born at New 
Harmony, Indiana. Colonel Prichard graduated from the literary 
and law departments of the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, 
leaving that institution in 1872. He practiced law at Little Rock, 
Arkansas, for some years following his graduation, and was ap- 




1 



George W. Frieliartl. 



pointed lieutenant-colonel of the Arkansas militia. In 1876, Colonel 
Prichard was a candidate for presidential elector on the Republican 
ticket. In 1879 he came west and settled at Las Vegas. Twice he has 
been elected to the legislative council. In 1882, he was appointed 
L'nited States attorney for New Mexico, which position he filled until 
the Cleveland administration appointed a Democrat in his stead. He 
served as solicitor general from 1904 until the spring of 1906 and in 
1909-10 and was delegate to the constitutional convention in 1910, and 
is now engaged in the private practice of law at Santa F^. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



775 



William Hayes Pope. 



William Hayes Pope, born at Beauford, S. Car. June U, 1870, 
g-raduated 1886, Atlanta, Ga., High School and 1889 University of 
Georg-ia, degree Master of Arts and 1890 Bachelor of Laws. Admitted 
to practice of law 1890, and practiced in Atlanta, Georgia, vmtil 1894 in 
association with Hon. Hoke Smith. Removed to Santa Fe, N. M., in 
1894 and has resided in New Mexico ever since with exception of a 




William Hayes Pope. 

year in the Philippine Islands. Served as member Capitol Commis- 
sion (which rebuilt the capitol ) 1895-1900, Assistant Attorney General 
1895-1897, Assistant United States Attorney court of private land 
claims 1896-1902, United States Attorney for Pueblo Indians of New 
Mexico 1901-02, Judg-e Court of First Instance of the Philippine Islands 
1902-03, Associate Justice Supreme Court of New Mexico 1903-10, Chief 
Justice Supreme Court of New Mexico 1910-12. Appointed by Presi- 
dent Roosevelt deleg'ate to Information Congress Lawyers and Judges 
St. Louis exposition 1904. Upon formation of new state of New 
Mexico in 1912 became its first United States District Judge. Mar- 
ried (1905) to Miss May Hull of Athens. Georgia. Member of Presby- 
terian church. Elks, Masons, Odd Fellows, Society of Colonial Wars. 



776 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



Ni 



icoias 



ino. 




Nicolas Pino. 

Don Nicolas Pino died a tew years a^o, after having- rendered im- 
portant services to the Union and New Mexico. His death occurred 
at his home in Galisteo, County of Santa F^. He was a son of Don 
Pedro Bautista Pino. who. as the reader may remember, was New 
Mexico's Delegate to Spain from 1810 to 1820. 



i. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



m 



Margarito Romero. 

Marg-arito Romero, son of Don Mig-uel Romero y Baca and of Dona 
Josefa Delg-ado, was born at the "Real de San Francisco," County 
of Santa Fe, but from his infancy, has lived at Las Veg-as. At the 
ag-e of six years he attended a primary school, and when he was 14, he 
was sent to the Christian Brothers* Colleg-e at Santa Fe. There he 




Margarito Romero. 



commenced his commercial studies. When he was 17 years, he was 
sent to St. Louis where he concluded his commercial course. He after- 
wards worked as clerk in several mercantile houses. He married 
Miss Trinea Delg-ado in 1872; they were blessed with a prog-eny of eight 
children all of whom died while yet infants. Mr. Romero has held 
several important positions, chief among' which was the county treasury 
and coUectorship. and his Deleg-ateship to the Constitutional Conven- 
tion of October, 1910. 



778 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



Alois B. Renehan. 

Mr. Renehan was born in Alexandria, Virginia, on the 6th day of 
January, 1869, was educated at the College of St. John at Washing-ton. 
D. C.,and St. Charles College, atEllicot, Maryland, where he prepared 
himself for the study of law in the University of Georgetown. In the 
autumn of the year 1892 he came west and located in Santa Fe, where 




Alois B. Renehan. 



he began his legal career as stenographer to Mr. Eugene Fiske: was 
in 1894 admitted to practice in the supreme court of New Mexico, and 
in 189,5 was the city attorney for the City of Santa F6, by appointment, 
and succeeded himself by election in 1897. While a Democrat, Mr. 
Renehan was honored from 1899 to 1902 as secretary of the Democratic 
central committee. In the political campaign of 1911 he left the Demo- 
cratic party and joined the Republican i^arty. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXJCO. 



779 



Alejandro Read. 

Alejandro Read was born in Santa F^, New Mexico, on August 
15th, 1850, a son of Benjamin Franklin Read, and of Ignacia Cano. 
His father died in the year 1857, he being- the eldest of the family. 
Alejandro, with his brothers, Benjamin and Larkin, received his edu- 
cation at St. Michael's College, in vSanta Fe. Mr. Read served as 




AlejaiKlio Uead. 

interpreter for the Indian Superintendent, at Santa Fe, studied law 
and was admitted to the bar in 1884. In 1885 he was elected clerk of 
the Probate Court, Assessor in 1887, and in 1889 was again elected 
clerk of the Probate Court. He:.was sheriff in 1900 and in 1902, and 
in 1904 member of the Legislative Council of the Territory. District 
Attorney in 1905, 1907, 1909 and 1911. At the first State election held 
Nov. 7, 1911, Mr. Read was elected District At orney for the district 
composed of Santa Fe, San Juan and Rio Arriba counties for a term 
of four years. 



'80 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



L. G. Read. 

Larkin Gregory Read, brother of Don Alejandro, and of the author 
of this work, was born in Santa F^ on May 26, 1856. His education, 
as well as that of Don Alejandro and the author of this work, is pri- 
marily due to the great sacrifices their mother made; and, secondly, 
to the generous help extended to them by the Most Illustrious 




1 



L. a. Uead. 



Archbishop, Don Juan Bautista Lamy. Larkin was preceptor 
in St. Micheal's College for five years: private Secretary of Gov- 
ernor Giddings: school teacher at Taos and Colorado until the 
year 1883. In 1884, he and the author of this work were the tran- 
slators of the compiled laws of New Mexico compiled in that year. In 
1886, he was admitted to the Bar. In 1896 was member of the Legisla- 
ture for the County of Santa ¥4, and the next year, 1897. died in Santa 
Fe. Don Larkin married Miss Teodorita Valdez v Martinez. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



781 



J. B. Read. 








J. B. Read. 



Jacobo Bossuet Read, was born in Taos, on July 5th, 1879. His- 
parents were Mr. Larkin G. Read and Mrs. Teodora Martinez de 
Read. Mr. Read was educated at St. Micheal's College in Santa Fe. 
He is to-day the cashier of the First National Bank. On June 22nd, 
1905, Don Jacobo married Miss Myrtle Hampel, daughter of Mr. and 
Mrs. John H. Hampel. 



782 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OP NEW MEXICO. 



Hon. Charles A. Spiess. 




I 

i 



Hon. Charles A. Spless. 
Mr. Spiess, for many years one of the leading- attorneys of New 
Me.xico, was president of Constitutional Convention, 1910. Member of 
the Senate for several terms, District Attorney several rears. Leader 
of the Republican party. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



783 



Bernard Seligman. 

Bernard Selig-man came to Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1856, from 
Germany, engag-ed in business under the firm name of Seligman and 
Cleaver, which partnership was maintained until the election of Mr. 
Cleaver as delegate to Congress. Bernard Seligman was several 
times a member of the Legislature, serving in the Senate and House 




Bernard Seligman. 



and was chairman of the Board of County Commissioners for three 
terms. He was also Territorial Treasurer, was Commissioner to the 
Exposition in Vienna for New Mexico in 1872, and to the Exposition 
in Paris in 1881. He built the first Court House in Santa Fe county. 
He served in the Army with a commission from Governor Connelly as 
Captain and Quartermaster, was a member of the Grand Lodge of the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Died in Philadelphia, February 
3, 1906. 



784 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



Hon. Arthur Seligman. 

Mr. Seligman, was born June 14th, 1871, in Santa Fe. He is a son 
of Bernard Seligman, and Frances (Nusbaum) Seligman. He was 
educated in the public schools of Santa Fe, and Philadelphia, is a 
graduate of Swarthmore College, Pa., and Pierce's College of Business 
of Philadelphia, 1887. Entered mercantile business in Santa F6, 1888. 

Chairman of the Board of County Commissioners, Santa F^ County, 
1899-1907. Made the first survey of the county; built a modern countv 




Hon. Arthur Seligman 

jail; built three stone bridges in the city and placed the credit of the 
county on sound basis; Chairman of Democratic Central Committee 
and member of Territorial Committee from 1895 to 1911; member of 
Board of Pan-American Exposition, BulTalo, 1900; Treasurer of the 
New Mexico Board St. Louis Exposition, 1904; Member of the Terri- 
tory Irrigation Commission, 1902-4; Member Territorial Board of 
Equalization, 1906-8; Mayor of Santa F^ from 1910 to 1912— as such, 
he built the first brick and asphaH-paved streets in the city and Terri- 
tory; was the last City Mayor under Territorial and first under State 
government. In 1896 Mayor Seligman married Frankie Lacker Har- 
ris, of Cleveland, Ohio. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



'85 



Abraham Staab. 

Mr. Staab was born in Westphalia, Germany, 7.] years ago, was 
educated in Germany and came to the United States in 1858. When he 
came to America he had acquired a g-ood commercial education, which 
fact enabled him to find employment, immediately upon his arrival in 
Norfolk, Virg-inia, as clerk in one of the larg-est dry goods establish- 
ments in the United States. In 1860 he, in company with one brother 
of his, came to Santa Fe, where they started a partnership in a general 




Abraham Staab. 



merchandise retail store in Santa Fe, their business growing- so rapidly 
that it did not take them long- to extend their trade throughout the 
southwest, and even into Mexico. Mr. Staab's brother died in 1883, 
after which date Mr. Staab continued the business of the firm in his 
own name, and as absolute proprietor, until 1902, when he retired from 
active business, and is leisurely living his last years in Santa F^, 
where he expects to die and be buried alongside of his deceased wife, 
Mrs. Julia Staab, who died in Santa F6 on the 14th day of May, 1866, 
and is buried there. Mr. and Mrs. Staab became the parents of eight 
children, four boys and four girls, all living except one girl. 



786 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



Geran St. Vrain. 

Col. St. Vrain was one of the Mrst American merchants that 
came to New Mexico from Missouri. In the anti- American revolt 
of 1847, he raised in Santa Fe a volunteer company of 65 men 
and accompanied Col. Price, who was in command of the regular 
army that marched up to Taos in January of that year to put 




C'ernn St. Vi-iiiii. 



down the rebellion. Col. St. Vrain distinguished himself in that 
memorable military campaign. In 1850 he was nominated by the party 
headed by Don Tomjis C. de Baca as Lieutenant Governor against 
Manuel Alvarez, who was running for the same office in tlie ticket 
headed by Henry Connelly. The Baca ticket, printed in another part 
of this book appeared afterwards with the name of Alvarez instead of 
St. Vrain's from which fact one is led to believe that St. Vrain 
declined the nomination. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



787 



Benedict St. Vrain. 




BenedictlSt. Vraln. 



Nephew of Ceran St. Vrain, pioneer merchant in the town of Mora, 
N. M., where he established the big St. Vrain Mercantile Store. 



788 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



Richard H. Tompkins. 

Judge Tompkins was born in Louisville, Kentucky, September 14, 
1816, received his education in Vicksburg'. Mississippi. Came to 
New Mexico in the fall of 1851. as Clerk of the United States District 
Court for New Mexico to which position he was appointed by Grafton 
Baker who had been, the same year, appointed Judge of the said 
District Court with headquarters at Santa Fe. 




Kicliard H. Tompkins;. 



Prior to his coming to New Mexico, Mr. Tompkins had occupied 
high, responsible and honorable ]iositions under the Federal Govern- 
ment, the last being that of assistant to the United States Marshal of the 
Southern District of Mississippi in the taking of the 7th census. The 
following oath (which the author of this work has in his possession) as 
such assistant was subscribed to by him: "I, Richard H. Tompkins, 
of the County of Warren, an assistant to the Marslial of the Southern 
District of Mississippi, do solemnly swear that 1 will make a true and 
exact enumeration of all the inhabitants within the district assigned to 
me, and will also faithfully collect the other statistics therein in the 



I 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 789 

manner provided in the Act for taking- the Tth census and in con- 
formity with all lawful instructions I may receive, and will make due 
and correct returns thereof as required in said Act." 

"Ric'd. H. Tompkins." 

In 1864, Mr. Tompkins married Miss Francisquita Sandoval, a 
hig-hly educated young- lady, member of a prominent family in Santa 
Fe. Seven children, six daughters and one son, were born from this 
marriage; of the daughters four have become nuns; three in the Order 
of Loretto and one as a Benedictine, one daughter and the son died 
young and unmarried and the other the oldest, married in Santa Fe, 
to Jose L. Delgado now dead. Judge Tompkins occupied other 
important positions such as Attorney General of New Mexico, 1858 
and U. S. District Attorney the same year, and again in 1860 re-ap- 
pointed Attorney General of New Mexico, Territorail Librarian in 
1880. Elected Probate Judge and Justice of the Peace in and for 
Santa F^ county for several terms. Judge Tompkins died in Santa 
F^ on the 14th day of January, 1888. 



"90 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



R. E. Twitchell. 




a. E. Twitchell. 

Mr. Twitchell was born at Ann Arbor, Michijj;-an. Nov. 29. 185!). 
He resides at Las Vegas. For several years lie has held the office of 
District Attorney. Has for several years filled the position of Attor- 
ney for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company. Is the 
author of several important works on New Mexican History. 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



791 



I 



Hon. Santiago Valdez. 




Hon. Santiago Valdez. 



Hon. Santiago Valdez, born at Taos, New Mexico, died in May, 1888, 
at Taos. Don Santiago was, without doubt, bne of the greatest men in 
New Mexico. As a lawyer he was the peer of the best lawyers of his 
time. As an orator he had no superior. As a scholar in the English, 
Latin and Spanish languages, he was inferior to none of those who 
could master these languages. His services as a public man com- 
menced with his election as Probate Clerk of Taos county in 18<33. 
Probate Judge of Mora county. Member of the Legislature as 
Senator and Representative for more than twenty years. Member of 
the Commission that Revised the Laws of New Mexico in 1884. 



792 



ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO. 



Paul A. F. Walter. 




Paul A. F. WiUter. 



Pavil A. F. Walter, President New Mexican Printing Company; 
editor Daily New Mexican: Supreme Court Reporter; Secretary New 
Mexico Archaeolog-ical Society. Born 1873 in Berlin, Germany: came 
to United States in 1883; Founder and Editor South Bethlehem, Pa., 
Daily Globe 1894; Editor and Manager Bang-or Daily News: Came to 
Santa F^ 1899; Postmaster Santa F^ 1902 to 1909; Admitted to Bar 
1906; Vice President New Mexico Bar Association 1908; Supervisor of 
Census for New Mexico 1910. 



ALPHABETICAL INDEX, CHRONOLOGICALLY 

ARRANGED. 



Aztec Indians, Empire of . .33-45 

Aborigenes, History of 33-45 

America, Discovery of.... 49-57 

Alvarado, Pedro de 6.3-121 

Acosta on Origin of Indians. .55 

Alvarez, Jos^ P 68 

Arag-on, Montejo Antonio 

(cited) 71 

Alcardz, See "Cabeza de Vaca" 

Asuncion, Fr. Juan de 100 

Alarcon, Hernando de 123, 135-6 
Alvarado, Hernando de 123, 

135-6 
Arellano, Tristan de 125, 128, 130 

Aguilar, Capt 229 

Arguello, F. Gov 256-7 

Acoma Pueblo and Rock 136, 

225, 232, 674, 713 
Aleman, Juan ( Indian Gov. ) 143 
Avila y Pacheco, Gov. . 257 

Arvide, Fr. death of ... .259,723-6 

Ayeta. Fr 261 

Alonzo, Fr. 274 

Alpuente, Juan de Fr 296 

Arias, Jos^ 301 

Anaya, de F 301 

Apache Indians 306, 322, 508, 

664, 684, 699 
Alburquerque, Founding of . .322 

Archundi, Fr 328 

Alay, Juan de 329 

Abiquiu 333 

ANZA, GOV." Battle with Coman- 
ches and death of "Cuerno 
Verde" 342; Moqui Indians 
surrender to, 343; Succeeded 
by Gov. Concha 344 
American Merchants 349, 350, 
357, 366 

American Army 415 

ALENCASTER, GOV. Administra- 
tion of 350 

Alamosa, Colo 350 

Allande, P. D. Gov 361 

Abreu, Santiago 361, 374, 600 

Abreu, Mariano 376 

Abreu, Ramon . . .376 

Alarid, J. M 376 

ARMUO, MANUEL GOV. 361, 363, 380, 



383-4, 386, 388, 394, 399, 402, 
418 

Aponte, Manuel de 376 

American Merchants, Claim 

of 389 

American Commercial agencv397 
Alvarez, Manuel 395, 401, "449, 
460, 465, 486-7, 600 

Archuleta, Diego 445, 603 

Austin 447 

A Ibert, John 447 

Armijo, Ambrosio 482 

Armijo, Rafael 482 

Armijo, Juan 483 

Armijo, Cristoval 484 

Agriculture, History of. .499, 502 

Arizona 503 

Abreu, Francisco P 508 

Apache Caiion 507 

Asylums 531,560 

Alvarez, Sebastian Rev 538 

Archa?ological School 588 

Alarid, Jos^ Rafael 600-1 

Armijo, Geo. W 616 

Aubry, Francis. . . 654 

Alonzo, Don (Indian) Con- 
version of 694 

Aixaos Nation 703 

Alexander VI. Pope, Bull of 710 

Agastan Pueblo 711 

Arvisu, Jose de Fr 723-6 

Avila V Avala, Fr 723-6 

Avila, "Hill de Fr 723-6 



BANCROFT, 51, 132, 164, 217. 220, 

246, 253. 506 
Bandolier, Mr. and Mrs. A. F.. 70 

"Bigotes" 125 

Barrionuevo 153 

Barrado in Mexico 174 

Bustamante, Pedro de 174 

Beltran, Bernardino Fr 178 

Barrato, Francisco 178 

Bonilla and Barbadillo 188 

Bonilla and Humaiia 190 

Barreiro 246, 247, 504, 534, 581, 

597 
Benavides, Alonzo Fr. 252-3, 532 

533-8, 563, 603, 656, 721-2 



'94 



INDEX. 



BUSTAHIANTE, GOV 327 

Bac*, M ig-uel A 352 

BACA, BARTOLOHIE 353, 361, 363, 573. 

583 
Bent Chas. 366: (Bent's Fort) 
406, 593; Appointed Governor 
of New Mexico 439; Assas- 
sination of 446, 608 

Baca, Ramon 387 

Brazito, Battle of 442 

Baubien, Narcizo 446 

Blair, Francis P 439 

Blumner, Charles 439 

Baubien, Charles (Carlos) 439, 
454 

Benton, Thos. H 453 

Baca, Tomas C. D 462-3 

Baird. S. M 481 

Burtinett ■ 483 

Boundaries 502-3 

Baca, Saturnino 508 

Bourgade, J. B 139, 510, 555 

Beckx. Rev 522 

Bianche, Rafael Rev 522, 530 

Baldassare, Rafael Rev 523 

Barry, E. Rev 528 

Bertolero, G. Rev 529 

Bueno, F. Rev ... 528 

Barbara, Sister 544 

Botulph, Brother 549, 553 

Becknell 571,592 

Benthane 573 

Banks and banking 586 

Bloom, Lansing Rev 604 

Baca, E. C. de. .608, 629, 630, 638 

Bursum, H. O 608 

Bar Association 612 

Blue Ballot 629 

Baca, R. L 



640 

Brito, Fabian, on Indian 

wars 645 

Beck, Preston 654 

Beltran, Manuel Fr 723-6 



Coxcox. Aztec priest 33 

CORTES, HERMAN 30-68, 116 

Columbus, Christopher 57 

Cortes, Capt 229 

Cordova 49 

CABEZA DE VACA,— Biography of, 
70; his account of Narvaez's 
expedition, 70-79; Captures 
Apache village, 77; start for 
Aute, 77; goes in search of 
sea coast, 78: conspiracy 
discovered, 78; Spaniards 
embark for the Gulf. 79: 
Cabeza de Vaca, Dorantes 



Alonzo del Castillo and Este- 
vanico survivors, 79; Span- 
iards eat flesh of their dead 
companions; Life of Cabeza 
de Vaca and his companions • 
among the Indians, 81, 84; 
miraculous cures, 81; escape 
of Cabeza de Vaca and his 
companions, 84: their jour- 
ney across the continent, 85; 
compelled to eat dog flesh, 
87; crossing of Pecos river, 
88; Zuiii visited, 88; meets Al- 
cardz, 88, 89: arrested by Ce- 
breros, 93: Released by Diaz, 
94; arrival of in City of Mex- 
ico, 95; makes report to Men- 
doza, 95; sails for Spain, 95; 
sent as Governor to S. Amer- 
ica; goes back to Spain under 
arrest, is tried and found 
guilty, appeals to the King, 
is vindicated and his titles 
restored, 95, 9(5; end of his 
life discussed, 97 

Cibola Countrv 114,711 

CORONADO'S EXPEDITION, 122: Pre- 
pares for his journey, names 
his subordinate officers, 123; 
sends Alarconto South Sea, 
123; reaches Composteia, 123; 
receives report of Melchor 
Diaz and Juan Zaldivar, 
124; the army starts, 124; 
Captain Lope de Saman- 
iego wounded, 124; Trujillo's 
vision, 125; sermon of Fr. 
Niza, 125; Fr. Victoria hurt, 
126; Chichiliticalli,12ii: reach- 
es Hawwiku (Zuiii), enters 
pueblo and writes to Men- 
doza, 127; name Zuiii "City 
of Granada,"' 127; disap- 
pointed, censures Fr. Niza, 
127; Zuiii Indians refuse to 
surrender, 127; battle is 
fought, pueblo taken, but 
Coronado is wounded, 127-8; 
waits at Zuni for rest of the 
army, 128; arrival of the 
army, 133; sends de Tovar 
to Tusayan, 123; sends Cd,r^ 
denas to discover Colorado 
river, 135; arrival of "Bigo- 
t6s," 135; sends Alvai'ado to 
verify Bigote's description 
of new pueblos, 137; cited, 
(note) 247; Bigotes, 140; 
army leaves Zuni for Tiguex, 
142; treats Indians cruelly, 



INDEX. 



795 



143; fig-ht with Tig-uex In- 
dians, orders Cardenas to 
kill all the Indians, Carde- 
nas burns many of them 
aliye, ir2, 143; 'death of 
Obando, 144; orders siege of 
pueblo, 144; trip to Cieuy^; 
report of Melchor Diaz's 
journey and death, 145; sub- 
mission of the "Queres" and 
trip to the Quivira, 146-149; 
sends army back to Tiguex 
and discovers the Quivira, 
149-151 ; other provinces are 
discovered, 153; Coronado's 
return, 153-6; Taos (Braba) 
discovered, 153; makes re- 
port to Emperor, 156; is 
hurt, 161; sends Cardenas to 
Spain, 161; Cardenas re- 
turns, 162; leaves Friars 
Juan de Padilla and Juan 
de la Cruz (Escalona) and 
Andres del Campo in New 
Mexico, 163; returns to Mex- 
ico, 163; is coldly received 
by Mendoza, 164. 
Cdrdenas, Garcia Lopez de. 123, 

245. 
Castaneda, 123, 127, 133, 143, 161, 

247. 
Colorado river, discovery of 
132. 135, 145, 245. 

Cicuy^ (Pecos) 137 

Campo, Andres del 163 

Chamuscado, F. Sanchez. .173-74 

Castano, de Sosa 189-191 

Corchado. Fr 219 

Claros, Fr 219 

Cristoval, Fr 219 

Cabreras, Juan 245 

Concha, de Gov 257 

Cruzat, Gov 272-3, 328 

Corvero, Fr 274-296 

Carbonela, A. Fr 296 

Castro, Muiioz de Fr 296 

Corral, de Fr 296 

Contreras, B. Fr 296 

Chavez, y Duran F 301 

CUBERO, DE RODRIGUEZ PEDRO DE GOV. 
217; Galisteo named and re- 
occupied by the Tanos, 318; 
French expedition, 318; 
names pueblo of Queres as 
"San Jos^ de la Laguna," 
318; deserts his post, 320; is 
succeeded bv De Vargas, 305 
CUERVO, Y VALDEZ FRANCISCO GOV. 
Arrival of, 321; submission 
of Moqui province, 321; at- 



tacked by Apache Indians, 
322; founding- of Albuquer- 
que, 322; succeeded by Gov. 
Chacon Medina, etc, 322. 
CHACON, MEDINA ETC., GOV. Admin- 
istration of, 322; Isleta re- 
settled, 322; succeeded by 
Mog-olion, .324. 
COSIO, Y VELARDE ANTONIO, .325; pub- 
lic schools, 326; arrival of 
Judg-e Estrada y Austria, 
327; the judg-e acts as g"Ov- 
ernor and is succeeded by 
Bustamante, 327. 

CRESPO, BISHOP 327 

CODALLOS, Y RABAL GOV. ..329 

CAPUCHIN, VEILEZ GOV. 330; Com- 
anche Indians attack Gal- 
isteo and Capuchin fights 
and routs them, 330; suc- 
ceeds Urrisola, 331-2-3, 335, 
342. 
Colorado, Mines discovery 

of 332 

Chama 333 

Church and Government 334 

•'Cuerno Verde, *' death of.. 342 

CONCHA, DE GOV 344 

CHACON, FERNANDO GOV. 345; Nava- 
joe war, 344; succeeded by 

Gov. Alencaster 349 

Chavez, Jos(5 A, 352, 361, 376, 
505, 601. 

Cooper 357, 571, 593 

Chavez, Xavier F. Gov 361 

Chavez, Mariano Gov 361 

Chihuahua 363, 565 

Clouthier, .T 366 

Carson, Kit 366 

Crepusculo, El 368 

Chimayo Rebellion 370 

Candelario, Jose 387 

Consulate, establishment of.. 395 

Chavez, Antonio 405 

Cook, John Capt 406, 593 

Cabailero. Esquipula 387 

Cook, Capt 420. 573 

Chacon, Capt. Rafael, 431-33. 
508, 603. 

Chiliuahua, battle of 443 

Cavanaugh, murder of 447 

Colver, murder of 447 

California, historical letter 

from 449 

California, Gulf, discovery 

of 132 

Convention, to form govern- 
ment 454 

Convention, government or- 
ganized 455^ 



796 



INDEX. 



Constitutional Conventions, 
see "State Govern- 
ment. ' ' 

Calhoun, Gov 471, 481, 487-9 

Camby, R. S. Col 506 

Chavez, Manuel Col 507-508 

Chavez, Francisco 508.(513 

Churches, Protestant in New 

Mexico 510, 513-14 

Chapelle, P 131, 510, 511 

CATHOLIC CHURCH, present organi- 
zation and list of parish 
priests in the vear 1912, 512 
to 514, 528, 529.' 
Catholic institutions of learn- 
ing. 513: see also chapter on 
•'Education." 

Coal . mines etc 517 

Casas Grandes 521 

Caso, Prisco 522 

Charity, Sisters of. . 531 

Cordova, J. Rev 529 

Catherine Connor, Mother . . .544 

Christian Brothers 545-555 

Counties 561 , 606 

Census, 561, 563, see "Popu- 
lation" 

Commerce, history of 563-583 

Caravans 573 

Corporations 585 

Catron, T. B 591, 642 

Carpenter, A . L 593 

C6rtes, (Congress) Delegates 

to 599 

Chief Justices 609, 636 

Convention, State Officers 624 
Canvassers. Board of... 626, 627 

Clancy, F. W 638 

Carrion, Luisa de 700-1 

Calle, Dios J. (Note) .... 715-722 

Cliff Dwellings 340 

Casafias, Jesus Ma. Fr 723-6 

Corvera, Francisco Fr 723-6 

Carbonelli, J. D. Fr 723-6 

Chirino, Pedro 715 

Coruna, Count 717 

Culiacan 711 



Delegates to Congress, 456, 469, 

610 
Delegates under Mexican Rule, 

5!)9-604 
Delegates, Const. Conven- 
tion 616 

Dodge, A. L . .460 

Dorantes, see "Cabeza de Vaca" 
Diaz, Melchor, 123, 124, 130, 132, 
145, 244 



De la Torre, Diego 120 

De la Cruz, Juan Fr 178 

Diaz de Vargag, Francisco. . .188 

De Lomas y Colmenares 188 

Davis. Historian . 236, 246 

DE VARGAS, DIEGO DE-Firt entry of, 
(1612) 272-294; second entry 
of, permanent conquest, in- 
troduction, 295-296; Francis- 
can Fathers list of, 296; 
takes final possession of 
Santa Fe, 297; pacification 
and settlement of the coun- 
try, wars with the Indians 
and full history of his con- 
quest of New Mexico 272-316; 
his imprisonment trial and 
vindication, 316; is succeeded 
by Governor Cubero, 316; is 
reappointed, his second 
administration, 317-320; his 
last will, death and burial, 
320-322 

Diaz, J. D. Fr 296 

De Jesus, Juan de Fr 313 

Delgado, Fr. death of 324 

Dominguez, Fr 340 

Durango and New Me.xico, 363, 

568 
"Diputacion Provincial" 363, 

599, 604 
Doniphan, Col. see "Inva- 
sion of New Mexico." 

Dalam, Richard 439 

Dolores, mission of 520 

Domiciano, Brother 549 

Deraches, Jules Rev 551, 589 

Doughertv, G. H. Rev 552 

Defouri, J. H. Rev.. 168, 555, 723 
Durango "Diputacion" . .. 600 
Delgado, Francisco (note)... 625 



E 



Estevanico, see "Cabeza de 
Vaca" and "Niza" 

Escalona, Juan de la Cruz Fr. 
163, 164, 223, 237-240, 246 

Escalante. Fr 340 

ESPEJO, ANTONIO DE entry of, 178- 
179; first fight with Indians, 
180; hears of Cabeza de 
Vaca's journey, 180; reaches 
Zuni, 183; discovers mines, 
185; visits divers provinces; 
sends Fr. Beltran back to 
Mexico; returns to Zuni and 
finds Fr. Beltnin who had 
retraced his steps, 183-186; 
visits Galisteo and starts 



INDEX. 



r97 



back to Mexico, 186; g-ives 
New Mexico the name of 
•'Nueva Andalucia," 187: 
makes efforts for second 
journey to colonize N e\v 
Mexico but fails, 188 

Escanjaque Indians, battle with 
236 

Escobar, Rev 244-5 

Escudero, Simon M. 246, 573, 
593 

EDUCATION, SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES 
history of, 326; Pino, Pedro 
Bautista's plea to the Span- 
ish King-, 354; first school 
law, 366; Las Vegas colleg-e, 
526-7; first parochial school 
(Jesuit), 529: primitive teach- 
ing-, 533: private school, 534, 
536; brief of the Holy Father, 
534; public school under Mex- 
ican rule, 525; first public 
school law, (April, 1822). 
536; second public school 
law, (March, 1823), 537; 
colleges at Taos and at 
Santa Fe, (in 1826), 537; 
contributions to pay teach- 
ers; Ditto appropriation of 
public funds, 538; public 
schools re-establishment of, 
under Mexican rule, 538; 
Salary of Teacher Alvarez 
fixed, 538: Ortiz. F. donates 
school house, 538; Xavier 
Francisco, Gov. donates 
$1000: Report on discipline 
in Colleg-e at Santa Fe (in 
1826), 538; Messag-e of Gov. 
Vig-il asking- for establish- 
ment of public schools, 539; 
Bishop Lamy establishes 1st. 
English school (in 1851) 
541; second Eng-lish School 
(by Mrs. Howe in 1852), 541; 
First school for girls (Sis- 
ters of Loretto) ; Establish- 
ment of Convents and his- 
tory of the doings of said 
Sisters in N. M. 542-545; 
Saint Michael's College, its 
branches and its history and 
results etc., 545-555; Silver 
and Golden Jubilees 550-555; 
Monument to Brother Bo- 
tulph. 553; Parochial schools 
555; Public School systeni 
557: Public School officials 
557-8: Public School funds 
558-59-60; Sectarian Schools, 



559; State educational insti- 
tutions, 559, 560; Indian 
Schools, 560; Recapitulation 
560: Industrial schools in 
1630, See ap])endix first 668: 
In the year 1630, 673-705; 
Trades taught (in 16.30), 708. 

Edwards, Brother 513, 549 

Executive Department. . . 608 
Estrado y Austria, Judge. . .327, 

Elizacoechea, Bishop 328 

Embudo 333, 447 

Escalante, Fr 340 

Esquivel, Juan J., execution of, 
338. 

Emory, Lieut. Col 421, 429 

Eguillon, Peter, Rev 545-6 

Eikins, S. B 614 

Ervien, R. P 638 

Espeleta, Jose, Fr 723-6 



Fabian, Bruno 38 

Figueroa, Suarez de 123 

Fuensalida 174 

Frias, Juan de 178 

Farfan, Capt., 223. 229, 234, 304 

306-7. 
Farfan, Fr., see "De Vargas.'^ 

French, trade with 327 

Foreigners, in. New Mexico, 329, 

350-7, 367. 

Famine 343 

Flon, Gov 342 

Franciscans. 348,518-531, 723-726 

Fernandez, Bartolom^ 352 

Feimandez, Agustin Fr. 363-537 

Forsvth. John 396 

Fillmore ^'^l 

Fede, L. Rev 528 

Fourchegu, Antonio Rev. 552, 

555. 

Fiske, E. A 613 

Flood, resolution 620 

Fall, A. B 642 

Freies. Fr. Hist, of New Mexico, 

715-722. 
Factories 580 



Grijalva 49 

Gregg, Josiah...52. 246, 573, 581 
Guznuin. Nuno Beltran de, 119, 
120. 

Guevara, Pedro de ..123 

Gal legos, Juan 123 

Gallegos. Hernan 174 

Governors 256, 361. 608-609 



■98 



INDEX. 



Guzman, Luis de Gov 257 

Garaechoechea, Fr 321 

Galisteo 318, 330 

Garraez, Jos6 .333 

Government, forms of... 341, 370 

Gorg-es, Fr 344 

Garcia, Pascual 352 

Garcia, Miguel .. . 352 

Glen 357, 570, 593 

Gonzales, Jose Gov .361,377 

Gorrilla, Miguel 431 

Gallegos, Jose M 445 

Giddings, J. M 454 

Gleason, soldier .483 

Greiner, John 488, 496 

Gadsden, Treaty with Mex...496 

Grant, General U. S 496 

Glorieta, battle of 507-8 

Geronimo, Apache chief 508 

Gasparri, Donato M. Rev.. 522- 

530. 
Gentile, Alovsius M. Rev., 524- 

550. 

Giglio, L. M. Rev 528 

Gilbert, A. Rev 529 

Gondulph, Brother 547, 548 

Geramius, Brother 547,549 

Galmier, Brother 547 

Graysen, J. B 587 

Grants 595 

Government, history of 596-7 

Guitierrez, Lorenzo 599 

Gorman 654 

Gonzales, Vicente 704 



H 



Hueman, Toltec priest .39 

Haines .52, 53, 506 

Herrera 55, 174 

Hodge 6, 71 

Hernandez, Gregorio 178 

Hernandez, Juan.... 178 

Hernandez, Pedro de Almon- 

sa 178 

Heredia, Pedro Rev 178 

Humafia 190 

Heredia, Cristobal 191 

Hernandez, Jos^ .... 387 

Howard, murder of 447 

Head, murder of 447 

Hendley, Capt 448 

Hidalgo, Guadalupe treaty 

of 448, 506, 595 

Houghton, Joah 4.39 

Humboldt, de Baron A.. .55, 517 

Hospitals 531 

Hilarion, Brother 547-8 

Hermes, Brother 549 

Hubbell, F. A 552 



Historical Society .587 

Hartman, Julius Rev. 616,639-40 
miles, Chas. D 639 



II 



Indians, American ,33 

Indigenes, of New Ivlexico, 49, 
254, 661, 699. 

Ibarra 170-171 

Isleta, re-settlement of .322 

Inundation of Santa Fe 334 

Iturbide . 363 

Invasion bv American Armv, 
415, 441.' 

Industries 583 

Inauguration of State Offi- 
cers ()38 



Jusepe, Indian 215, 236 

Jesus, Maria F. Fr 296 

Jorge, A 301 

Jesus, Juan de Fr 313 

Jesuits 327, 329, 518-530 

Jaramillo, Pablo . .446 

Juliilees 550-555 

Jaffa. Nathan 585, 608 

Justice, administration of, 597, 

605-6. 
Jemes Nation (>72-699 



K 



KEARNY, GEN. S. W., See "Invasion 
of New Mexico bv American 
Army" 415-441, 463. 484, 486. 
(mentioned) 598, 608. 

Kit Carson. Col 508 

Kephardt, W. J. Rev 513 

Kino, Eusebio Rev 519-522 

Kowald, F. X. Rev 528 

Kansas City 593 

Kansas Citv Journal 594 

Knox. P. C 635 



Lvell, on Ameincan Indians.. .38 
LANIY, J. B., 53, 90: appointed 
apostolic Vicar, 510; conse- 
cration of, 510: arrives in 
Santa Fe and is met with 
obstacles from Mexican 
priests; goes to Durango, 
510-522; opens first English 
school for boys, 541: l)rings 
Sisters and opens Loretto 
Academy, 542: brings Chris- 
tian Brothers, 545-8; opens 
St. Michael's College, 548. 



INDEX. 



799 



Lopez, Diego de 123, 700 

Lopez, P. Francisco, 172, 174, 
175-6-7. 

Lopez, de Ibarra 178 

Lujan, Diego Perez 178 

Luna. Bernardo de 178 

Lug-o, Fr 219 

Lopez, de Mendizabal Gov. . .257 

Letrado, Pr 258, 723-6 

Lucero, de Godoy J. D 301 

Lag-una, pueblo de 318 

Lorenzo, San founding- of... 324 

Lalande, J . B 349, 570, 592 

Lejanza, Martinez de Gov... 361 

Lovato, Beniura 406-7 

Lee, Stephen 466-Lee, 'GenT 446 

Leitensdorfer, Eugene 439 

Luna. Ramon 454 

LANE, W. CARR, GOV., Succeeds Gre- 
iner: Interesting message to 
Legislature 488-493: takes 
possession of Mexican Ter- 
ritory: famous proclamation 

of ..' ...49.3-96 

Lee, Genera], Surrender of to 

Gen. Grant 496 

Loretto, Sisters of 513-14, See 
"Education." 

Lamy, Prancisca Mother 544 

Luna, Solomon 643 

Laughlin, N. B 643 

Larrazolo, O. A 643 

Legislature, presiding officers 

of .455,464,610 

Live stock industry . 504 

Livio, Vigilante, S. J 522 

Lafon, J. Rev., 529 

Lujan, Luis Diaz de 537 

Legislative Department 608 

Lucero, Antonio 609, 625, 6.30, 638 



M 



Maya Indians 33-45 

Montezuma, Emperor38,64,65,60 

Mexico City, founding of 46 

Marina .... .64 

Mendoza, Antonio de. See 'Niza' 

Fr. 
Marcos de: makes contract with 

Alvarado and Coronado.l2l 

Maldonado Redrigo 123 

Manrique, Alonzo de Lara. .123 
Melgosa, Pablo de ..123, 245 
Missions, first in New Mexico 

173, .328, 329. 
Missions and Missionaries, 518, 

531. 
Mines, discovery of 175, 185,223, 

337, 516, 518, 667, 673, 681, 699 



Martin, Cristoval 188 

Morete, Capt 191 

Monterey, Viceroy 199 

Miguel, Pr 219 

Marquez, Capt 224, 229 

Mendizabal Gov. See "Lopez de 

Mendizabal, Gov 257 

Medrano. Juan de Gov 257 

Miranda, Gov 257 

Mercurio, Volante. 272 

Maria, J. Pr 296 

M adrid, Roque 301 

Misquio, Lazaro 301 

Mesa Prieta, first battle of. . .305 
Mesa Prieta. second battle of 313 
MOBOLLON, GOV. Administration of 
324: i3attlewith Yuta Indians 
324: San Lorenzo founding 
of, 324: Troubles with the 
Franciscans. 324: Succeeded 
by Gov., Martinez, 324: His 

MARTINEZ, FELIX GOV. His adminis- 
tration. 325; Arrest of Mogo- 
llon, 325: Goes to Mexico, 
leaving Cosio acting Gov- 
ernor, 325: War with the 
Indians, 325. 

WIICHALENA Y OLAVIDE, GOV., 327 

MENDOZA, GOV 328, 331 

Marie, Luis 329 

Martin del Valle. Gov. 330. 331 
MENDINUETA, GOV. Introduction of, 
334; Peace with the Francis- 
cans, 334: Treaty with the 
Comanche Indians, 335; Im- 
portant historical account, 
336-340; Succeeded by Anza, 
but leaves Trevol acting, 342. 
Moqui province, surrender of, 
321, 343, 675. 

Morrison, Wm 349 

Mainez, Gov 350, 561 

Manrique, Gov., Administration 
of, 351. 

Montoya, Diego 351 

M iera y Pacheco 352 

McKnight, 357, 570, 592 

Melgares, F. Gov 361.367 

Muiioz, P. Gov 361 

Martinez, de Lejanza M. Gov. .361 
Mexican government, commen- 
cement of, 363. 

Maxwell, L. B 366 

Muller, F 366 

Montoya, J. F 380 

Madariaga, Manuel 380 

Montoya, D., execution of. . .388 
Montoya, Ant , A. execution of, 
388. 



800 



INDEX. 



Miranda, Guadalupe, .'WS, 401, 

534. 

McDaniel, John 405 

Martinez, Antonio J., Rev. 407, 

409, 446, 454, 536, 537. -538, 

597, 603. 

Martinez, Francisco 387 

Marshall, 447 

MORA, Invasions of the Texans, 

406; Murders of Americans 

at. 447: Assault of, by Capt. 

Hendlev and Capt. Morin, 

448. 
Memorial for org-anization of 

g'overnment, 454. 
Mexicans, repatriation of .456-8 

Monroe, Gov 460 

Montoya, Atanacio 483 

Mower, Judge 484 

Manufactures, .... 500, 580, 583 
Miles, Gen., Nelson A., .. .508 

Methodist Church . 513 

Marra, Joseph F.. Rev . . 520.30 

Montenarelli. J. N., Rev 528 

Massa, G., Rev 528 

Mandalari, A. M., Rev. 529, 546 
Magdalena, Hay den Mother 542-3 
Machebeuef. Bishop. . .519, 546-7 

Museum of New Mexico 588 

Mills, Miss Madeline 589 

Mills. Gov . . 589, 608, 613 

McDonald, W. C. Gov. 608. 629 
Martinez, Malaquias . . . .608,643 

Monroe, John, Gov .... 608 

Marshall's celel)ration, 613 

McFie, J. R 627,636 

Marron, O. N 638 

Martinez, Felix 643 

Moro, Rock of 651 

Manso Nation . ... (i62 

Martyrs, List of 723, 726 

Miranda. P. Fr 723, 726 

Maria, Juan de Jesus Fr. 723, 726 
Moreno, Antonio Fr ...723. 726 



N 



Narvaez, Panfilo de 64, 65, 71, 
715. 

NIZA, FR. MARCOS DE, 100: Instruc- 
tions to, from Mendoza, 101, 
164; Starts from CJuliacan, 
105: Descri])es parts of his 
journey 105 to 113; His ef- 
forts to find the South Sea, 
113; Continues journey to 
Cibola, 114;Receives news of 
Estevanico's death, 114; 
Reaches Zuiii takes posses- 
sion of the country and 



names it "New Kig-dom of 
San Francisco" and returns 
to Mexico, 115; His claim of 
discovery disputed by Cortes, 
116; Appeals to Fr. Antonio, 
for proofs of his right and 
Fr. Antonio certifies to his 
claim, 117; Accompanies 
Coronado as far as Zuiii, is 
censured and compelled to 
return. 127. 
NEW MEXICO'S NAME: "New King- 
dom of San Francisco," 115; 
Name "New Mexico'' given 
by Father Ruiz, 171-177; 
Named "Nueva Andalucia" 
by Espejo, 187; Consolida- 
tion of, 363; Made Territory 
363, 600; Made Department 
368; Invasion of by Ameri- 
can army, and annexation 
to U. S' 415-441; Admitted 
into Union as State, 6.32-6.36: 
Mentioned. 721. 

Nunez Fr 274 

Narvaez, J. Fr 296,328 

Navajoe Indians, 348, 442, 501, 

508, 684, 699. 
Narbona. A. Gov. .'361, .363, 504-5 
Newspaper, first in New Mexico 

(El Crepusculo) 368 

Noyes, Murder of 447 

Nicholson, E. G. Rev 513 

Nelson Resolution 620 

O 

Ordaz, Diego de 63 

Onorato Fr. , 105-6 

Obando. Francisco 123, 144 

ONATE, DON JUAN DE, First con- 
quest, 193: His entry 196; 
Signs contract. 197; Prepares 
for journey, 198; Help from 
his relatives, 197; King an- 
nuls contract, 198; Viceroy 
Monterey's command, 199; 
Triumphs over his enemies, 
202; Start of expedition, 202; 
Takes possession of New 
Mexico, 20;}-210; List of col- 
onists, soldiers, military 
officers and priests 211-212; 
Pueblo of San Juan reached 
and named "San Juan de 
los Caballeros," 212-213; 
Drouglit afflicts Indians, and 
prayers bring rain, 21.'{-14; 
Learns of (^uivira through 
Jusepe and about Bonilla 



INDEX. 



801 



and Humana, 2U-15: First 
colony di scussed, 217 ; Found- 
ing- of, 218, 221; Assigns 
priests to the Pueblos, 219: 
Appoints Villag-ra to Coun- 
cil of war, 220; Visits Indian 
Pueblos to find site to locate 
the capital, 221; Capital near 
San Juan de los Caballeros, 
on the East side of Kio 
Grande, and the settlement 
is first named "SanGabriel'] 
and also "San Francisco,"' 
221, 222; Visit of inspection; 
Sends Farfan and Quesada 
to discover mines, 222, 223; 
Attempts discovery of South 
Sea, 223; Leaves Juan Zal- 
divar in charge, 223; Sends 
Vicente Zaldivar to Gran 
Quivira 223; Replaces Juan 
Zaldivar and orders him to 
join the expedition 223; 
Scarcity of food in the col- 
ony 223; Death of Juan Zal- 
divar, 225; Abandons trip of 
South Sea, returns to San 
Gabriel, calls for opinion of 
the priests; War is declared, 
225, 228; Expedition against 
the Acomas, battle, defeat 
and surrender. 228-232; Asks 
for aid to continue opera- 
tions 233; Sends emissaries 
to Mexico, 234; Colonists 
disag-ree, 235; Exposure by 
the Franciscans, 235; Jour- 
ney to the Quivira and battle 
with the Indians, 236; 
Charges made by Father Es- 
calona, 237, 240; Ditto by 
Father de San Miguel, 240- 
242; Royal decree, 243; Visits 
the South Sea and end of 
his Administration, 244; 
Succeeded by Peralta. 
OTERMIN, ANTONIO DE GOV.,... 256, 
257; His expulsion and his- 
tory of the revolt (1680) 263; 
Uprising headed by Pope, 
262; Assault of Santa Fe: 
Heroism of the Spaniards; 
Siege of the City; Otermin is 
wounded; His departure 
from Santa Fe, 264; History 
of the uprising, battles and 
departure of the Spaniards, 
taken from Otermin's Report, 
267-271: His second entry, 
272; Mentioned, 723-6. 



Obreg-on, A. Fr 296 

Ojo Caliente 333 

Oraive, Province 343 

Ortiz, Antonio 351 

Ortiz, Juan R 352, 361 

Olona, M iguel 380 

Ortiz, y D. Francisco 413 

Ortiz, Tomas 445 

Otero, Antonio Jos^ 439, 478 

Otero, M. A. Sr 496 

Ortiz, Ramon Cur^ 456, 458 

Ortiz, Candido 481 

Orphanages, etc 531 

Ortiz, Juan Felipe Rev. .538, 603 

Ortiz, Francisco 538 

Obregon, Pablo 593 

Ode, to New Mexico 639 

Ontiveros, Juan D 717 

P 

Prehistoric times 22 

Prescott, Wm. H. . 36 

Prince, L. B. 52, 53, 132, 133, 236, 
246, 514, 559, 587, 589, 623 
Pecos. Pueblo of. See "Cicuy^" 
also 670; Pecos Church (in 
1630, ) 713. 
Padilla, Juan de Fr. 163, 164, 
165, 247, 723. 

Petatlan, Pueblo of K16 

Pinero, Capt. , . 234 

Pope, Indian rebel 262 

Peinado, Father 249 

Poras,Fr 258,723-6 

Prieto, G. Fr 296 

Posadas, Rev. . . 236, 246, 248 

PERALTA, PEDRO GOV., 246, 249 

Pueblo Indians, See "Indians ' 
and "Indegenes"' also 673- 
705. 
Pacheco, de Heredia Gov . . 257 
PENALOIA, DIEGO DE GOV., 257 Ad- 
ministration of ,259; Removed 
and punished 260; His 
Treachery, 260. 

Priests, Assignment of, 314 

Pena, Juan de la Fr 323 

Peiia, Mariano 353 

Pefiuela, Marqu^z de 321 

Plata, River j-j'- 

Purslev, James 3o0, o.).^ 

Pike, Zebulon 350, 570, o92 

PINO, PEDRO B. 246: Election of, 
351; His Address and History 
before the King and Cortes 
352, 353-360; on New Mexico 
industries, 499-502, 515-516, 
534, 563, 596. 
Pino, Jose 30l, .id- 



802 



INDEX. 



Pino, M anuel de 387 

Pino, Nicolas 414 

PEREZ, ALBINO GOV., Mil: his inaug-u- 
ration and address. 3H8, 370; 
rebellion against his g"Ov- 
ernment, 371 et seq: pro- 
clairos tax law, 373: defeated 
by rebels, 375; death of, 376. 

Pedraza, president 365 

Provincial deputation 366 

Price, Sterling- Col. See ''Inva- 
sion of New Mexico,'" 415, 
448; acts as governor, etc.. 
453, 508. 

Praet, murder of 447 

Perea, Juan 454 

Pley, Jos^ . 454 

Political parties, first 459 

Political corruption 470 

Pitaval, J. B., 141, 510, 511, 551, 
552, 633, 638. 

Pueblos, mentioned 514,516 

Parto, Bernardo Fr 520 

Pinadero. Bernardo 520 

Pinto, Chas. M. Rev 522-30-5 

Persone, A. S. Rev 528 

Perea, Lucia mother 544 

Pope, His Holiness 534 

Phillip, Brother 547 

Padilla, Camilo 552 

Parochial schools 555 

Penal institutions 560 

Population 561, 563 

Property values 586 

Press, the 587 

Pelham 595 

Provincia Interina 599 

P^rez, Francisco Serrano 

Aguirre 599 

Perez, Demetrio, .368-70, 603, 654 

Political department. 606 

Puerto de Luna 645 

Palacio, Vicente Rivas Gen., 
648-651. 

Piros Province 668 

Perea, Estevan Fr 700 

Picuris nation 673 

Puaray pueblo 712 

Q 

Quetzalcoath 41-43 

Quivira . .140, 236, 251, 703, 714 

Quesada, Capt 223 

Quintana, Teodocio 387 

Quintana, Nicolas, 431-.36, 508, 
5.39. 

Quinn, James 454 

Quinn, Miss 590 

Queres nation 668 



Rodrig-uez. Emilio 44 

Ramires, de Varg-as Luis 123 

Ramirez, Manuel 387 

Rodrig-ues, (Ruiz)Fr. Ag-ustin, 
171, 174-5-6, 5.33, 716, 723. 

Romero, Captain 229 

Rosas. Luis Gov 256, 259 

Reneros, de Posada Pedro 

de Gov 273 

Ruiz, J 301 

Rael, de Ag-uilar A 301 

Rivera, .Juan MaCajit., dis- 
covers mines in Colora- 
do 3.32 

Roubidoux, Charles 366 

Rights, bill of 439 

Rebellion 445 

Robidoux, letter from 449-452 

Rosentein, publicly whipped, 479 

Reynolds, Captain 483 

Railroad, first survey of, 496; 
first built. 583. 

Reed, W. H. Rev 510 

Remedios de, Nuestra Sra., 

mission of 520 

Rossi, A. M. Rev 526 

Revista Catolica 526 

Roy, A. Rev 528 

Rascon, Juan Rafael Vicar, 5.34 
Rosina, Sister Superior ....544 

Riley, Col 573, 593, 612 

Read, Benjamin M, (Author of 
this work), 592, 612, 613. 

Rivas, Francisco 599 

Rado, Manuel de Jesus 601 

Roberts, C. J 627, 636 

Rites of the Indians, 49-57, 678 
Religious, occupation of (in 
l(i30) 708 

S 

Salpointe, J. B.,52, 55, 129, 236. 
246, 510, 550, 555. 

Suarez, Victoriana 71 

Silicia, Francisco 71 

Samaniego. Lope de . , 123 

Soto Mayor, Juan de ... . .123 
SANTA FE, foundation of: discov- 
ered. I(i8; date of founding- 
fixed by Posadas, 246; men- 
tioned again, 247; assault 
and siege of by rebellious 
Indians, (1(>80) 2(U: taken by 
De Vargas, 276-9; retaken of 
(first tune in 1693), 297: ter- 
rific battle and final taking 
of, by De Vargas, 302; foun- 



INDEX. 



803 



I 



dation of, 334; possession of, 
taken by American army, 
416, 43"; taken by Confeder- 
ates, 506; Santa F^ Trail, 
563, 575, 589: factories in. 
580; end of Santa Fe Trail, 
589; Santa F^ (in 1630), 670. 
Santa Maria, Fr. Juan de, 172, 
175, 176. 

Sanchez, J osd 174 

Sanchez, de Chavez, Pedro.. 174 

Sanchez, Cristoval 178 

Sanchez, Valenciano 178 

Sanchez, Larazo 178 

Sanchez, Miguel 178 

San Juan de los Caballex^os, 212, 
213. 

San Gabriel 222, 719 

San Francisco 22 

San Miguel, F. de Rev.. 240, 242 

Shea, historian 246 

Silva, Manuel Gov 252, 256 

Salmeron, Zarate Geron- 

imo Fi- 252 

Santander, Juan Fr 253, 656 

Samanieg'o, Gov .257 

Spaniards, expulsion of 262 

San Antonio, Salvador de. 

Fr .....296 

Santa Cruz, resettling of, 315, 333 

Serna, Captain 324 

Schools and colleges; see "Edu- 
cation.'' 

Salt Lake, discovery of 340 

Silva, Juan Jose 353, 387 

Sarracino, F 361, 454 

Spanish government, end of, 363 

St. Vrain, Ceran 366-47 

Santa Cruz, battle of 375, 447 

Saenz 376, 454 

Salazar, Jos^ 380 

Salazar, Pablo 380 

Snively, Colonel 406 

Sandoval, Anastacio 414 

Scolly, John 411-414 

Sacramento, Rancho, battle of, 
443. 

Senators to Mexico 443, 444, 

602: To U. S. Senate, 642. 

Smith, Hugh C 456 

Slavery In New Mexico 470 

Scoundrelism in New Mexico, 471 
State government, See "State- 
hood," 613. 645. 

Skinner, killing of 484 

Sibley, Gen 507 

Slough, Col 507 

Spain, War with 509 

St. Catharines', School See, 
"Education." 



St. Anthony's Sanatorium. . .513 
Salvatierra, Jose Ma., Fr. 520-22 

San Ignacio, Mission of 520 

San Jos^, Mission of 520 

San Javier, del Bac 521 

Santa Clara, mound 521 

Schimp, J. B. Rev 528 

Sisters of Loretto, History of, 
in New Mexico etc., "^(See 
"Education,"' 542,545. 

Silva, Flavio 553 

Statistics (from 1820 to 1832) 851 

Sattord, C. V 585 

Surveyor General's office 595 

Seligman, A. Mayor 590 

Sarracino, Rafael General.. 601 

Sheriffs 606 

Secretaries of the Territorv, list 
of ()09. 

Supreme Court (i29, 636 

Springer, Frank 613 

Spiess, C. A 616 

State officials, list of 629 

Sargent, W. G 6.38 

Sevilleta, Founding of 666 

Smith resolution 622 

Soil, fertility of, (in 1630) . . .682 

Seilora Valley 711 

Saraoz, Domingo, Fr 723-6 

Sinaloa 711 

Sketches of individuals 727 



Toltec. Indians, 33. 41, 43, 44, 

47, 64. 
TORQUEWIADA, on the Indians of 
New Mexico, 55; On death of 
Fr. Rodriguez, Fr. Lopez 
and Fr. Juan de Santa 

Maria 177. 218 

Tovar, Pedro de 123. 134 

Tusayan, province of, 133, 723-6 

"Turco,'' Indian . 137 

Tiguex, location of. 248, 712, 668 

Tutahaco, ])rovince of 138 

Twitchell, R. E 217,218, 220 

Tupatu, Indian Gov 279 

Telles, Giron R 301 

Tamaron, Bishop 331 

Taos 153, 331, 672, 673 

Trevol, Gov 342 

Tafoya, Miguel 351 

Tax law, first in New Mexico. 373 

Tom6 378 

Texan Invasions 397, 407 

Tapia, Rafael 387 

Turlev, Simon 447 

Turbush, Hatfield 447 

Tolque 447 



804 



INDEX. 



Taos Pueblo, battle of. . .447, 448 
Territorial and State govern- 
ments 455-6, 4ti3; New Mexico 
erected as a State 600. 

Topography 502-3. 

Tommasini, P. Rev 528-9 

Tommasini, F. X. Rev 529 

Teachers, Salaries of, under 

Mexican rule 5.35-538 

Trail, Santa Fe 589 

Territorial Deputation 597 

Taft.President6l5, 617-618,623,635 

Tioas (Tiguex) Nation 668 

Tompiros Nation (Chilili). . .669 
Tanos ( Galisteo) Nation ...670 

Temperature ( in 1630) 648 

Trujillo, Jos^ Fr 723-6 

U 

Urrea, Lope de 123 

Ugarte, Gov 257 

Uprising of Indians . 262 

Uprisings under De Vargas, 304, 
315. 

Urrisola, Gov 328, 331 

U. S. Commercial Agency . . 397 
Urdiiiola 188, 719 

V 

Vera Cruz founded by Cortes, 64 
Vaca, Alvar Nunez Cabeza 

de, See "Cabeza de Vaca" 

Victoria, Antonio Fr 126 

Villagra, 191-194-201. 203,214-15. 

217. 220, 224. 229-232. 

Velarde, Capt 229 

Velasco, Father 236 

Vergara, Father 236 

Ventacur, Historian . 2-16 

Villa Nueva, F. de Gov 257 

Vargas De. 272 et, seq. 

Vohomondo, A. Fr 296 

Valverde, Fr 296 

Varela, Diego 301 

Velarde, Antonio 301 

Valdez y Cuervo, Gov 321 

Velarde y Cosio. Gov 325 

Vell^z, Capuchin Gov 330 

Vergara, Sanchez Ignacio. . .253 

Viscarra. A. Gov 361 

Vigil, Bautista J. B. Gov.. 361, 

430-1, 600. 

Vigil, Antonio .384 

Vigil, Juan, Execution of. . . 388 
Vigil, Donaciano 439, 453-4, 

456-8, 461, 539, 608. 

Vigil , G regorio 454 

Vezza, Rafael 522 

Valverde, Paz 625 



W 

War with Acomas 225, 232 

War with Navajoes. ...344,348 

Webster, Daniel 399 

Wartield 406 

War with Mexico 415, 443 

Waldo, Murder of 447 

Washington, Col. J. M 453 

West. E. P 454, 455 

Whiting, D. B 467 

Weigh tman, R. H 469, 654 

Welsh, soldier 483 

Walker, Capt 483 

Woolen, Manufactures of.. 500-1 

War, Civil 506-7 

War with Apaches 508 

War with Spain 509 

Walter, James Brother 459 

Wilson 573 

Wagons, First used. . 582 

Wagon Route 590 

Williams, Walter D 590 

Williams, Moss 590 

Watson, Col 593 

Washington, J. M 608 

White, N. A 638 

Williams, H. H 638 



Xochitl of Tulan or Tolan 42 

Xavier, Chavez Fr., Gov. 361, 

367, 538 
Xumana nation 703 

Y 

Yucatan, discovery of 49 

Y^, Juan 301 

Yuta Indians ..324 



Zufii, see "Cabeza de Vaca" 

also "Niza" also "Coro- 

nado"', also "Espejo", also 

675 

Zaldivar, Juan, 123, 223, 224, 225 

Zaldivar, Cristoval 198 

Zaldivar, Francisco 198 

Zaldivar. Vicente, 198, 223, 228, 
%\2, 234 

Zamora, Fr 219 

Zubia, Capt 229 

Zotylo, Felipe, Gov.... 252,256 

Zia, battle of 273 

Zaboleta, Fr 296 

Zenos, D. Fr 296 

Zubiria, Bishop .... 368 

Zaguirre. M.I. Rev 528 



Unsolicited Opinions and Press Comments. 

(Translated from the Spanish.) 
Mr. Benjamin M. Read. 

My Esteemed Sir: — I have derived much pleasure from 
the perusal of your book entitled, "Illustrated History of 
New Mexico,"' and on coming- to the end of it, I must not 
fail to cong-ratulate you for having- undertaken such a 
laborious task and for having- broug-ht it to such a happy 
conclusion. 

This work extending- from pi^ehistoric times to our 
current year, is amply enriched by documents; and you 
narrate occurrences from original resources many of which 
were not even known by those who, up to this time, have 
made a study of the history of our region. In this respect 
no one can question your superiority. 

Some historians, while narrating- past events, g-ive some 
facts and distort others, suiting- them to their likes or their 
dislikes; their work might be called romances rather than 
histories, their writings, to quote the expression of Leo 
XIII, are a conspiracy against the truth. But you have 
only been guided by the dictates of your sober judgment 
and of your good conscience. 

Furthermore. I am pleased to see that, in your history, 
what the Catholic church has done for civilization in New 
Mexico, has not been banished to the shade but is pro- 
minently brought to light; in this you have but performed 
an act of justice. 

In detailing in your masterly way the noteworthy events 
of which our land has been the scene, you have reared up 
a splendid monument, fairer and more durable than granite 
shafts- a monument that will be an honor to New Mexico 
as well as to its author. 

I sincerely wish for your work, so elegantly edited and 

so amply illustrated the broad circulation which it so 

richly deserves. 

JUAN B. PITAVAL, 

Archbishop of Santa Fe. 



B history lUortb Ulbile. 

(From the New Mexican, June 7, 1911.) 
There has been an insistent and persistent demand for a 
history of New Mexico that is written from the standpoint of 
today in the light of all the historical facts available. Such a 

805 



work finally, has come from the press and is the production 
of Hon. B. M. Read. It is more extended in scope, more 
scholarly in execution, more thoroug-h in research than the 
average state history and for New Mexico establishes a 
new authority tliat will be considered final up to this time. 
The New Mexican has reviewed this work at length before 
this and takes especial pride in its beautiful typograhy 
and the streng-th of its illustrations having" been printed in 
its office. With jileasure it reprints the following- criticism 
of Ex-Governor L. Bradford Prince, President of the New 
Mexico Historical Society, and himself the author of a 
History of New Mexico, that at the time of its publica- 
tion was the standard history of this commonwealth and is 
even at this day mucli sought by libraries, scholars and 
the literati: 

Santa Fe, N. M., June 3, 1911. 
Hon. Benjamin M. Read. 

My Dear Sir:— I have been reading with much interest 
your "'Historia Ilustrada de Nuevo Mexico,"" and wish to 
congratulate you very heartily on that monumental work, 
I use the word ''monumental"" advisedly because through 
coming generations this important volumn will stand as a 
monument to your ability, industry, fairness and good 
judgment. 

Taken altogether it forms the first complete history of 
the territory that has been published containing many 
matters of interest which were not available when previous 
authors wrote on the subject. It is only recently, that 
many of the documents from which you have drawn 
valuable information, were accessible, and the energy with 
which you have pursued every authentic source of historical 
material, in Elurope as well as America is worthy of all 
praise. 

I consider the acquisition of the speech made by Don 
Pedro Bautista Pino, while representing New Mexico in the 
Congreso de las Espaiias. November 20, 1812, as a specially 
V»rillant achievement: and the original manuscript possessed 
by Manuel Alvarez, sheds new light on the era of American 
occupation. 

Tiie insertion of the entire report of Fray Benavides, the 
"Relacion'" of Padre Frejes and other documents of rare 
historical importance, in the Appendix, add greatly to the 
value of the work. 

If I may particularize the characteristic which especially 
distinguishes this important history, it is the absolute 
regard for truth and the courage in expressing it, which 
a)-e very noticeable features. All the value of a history 
comes from its perfect honesty: and no one can read your 

806 



I 



''Historia" without being struck by the extreme care you 
have given to accuracy, and your fearlessness in stating 
facts even wlien they overthrow the cherished ideas and 
traditions. 

I have no doubt that you will receive the heartly thanks 
of all good New Mexicans for this Labor of Love to which 
you have devoted so much time and ability, thanks which 
are certainly most justly due. 

Very truly yours, 

L. BRADFORD PRINCE, 
President New Mexico Historical Society. 



Hon. Antonio Lucero, Editor of La Voz del Pueblo, Las 
Vegas, N. M. 

"I notice with pleasure that the sale of your valuable 
history has been more wide-spread than you have antici- 
pated. I have read with much delight and satisfaction all 
that is contained in your volume and have remarked at its 
conclusion that I wish it were placed in the hands of every 
Spanish- American family both in New Mexico and southern 
Colorado, that our people might learn more about the 
history of their ancestors and feel justly proud of their 

achievements." 

I am yours very truly, 

ANTONIO LUCERO. 



Ex-Chief Justice E. V. Long. 

"I congratulate you on this historical labor of love. I 
do not believe it will be one of profit. However you have 
done something for your day and generation of which you 
and your descendants may always feel proud." 



Letter from Historian R. E. Twitcheli. 

"I think it a most creditable work and one that reflects 
great credit upon you. I assure you it is a pleasure to 
know that some man l)orn in the country has patriotism 
enough to undertake what you have undertaken and 
produced . " " 

From John E. Griffith, Attorney at Law. 

"I have recently received a circular in regard to your 
history of New Mexico to be published in English. I have 
heard many compliments upon the Spanish edition and 
part of the same has been translated to me. I am 
thoi'oughly convinced that it is a great and useful work, 
and I want to congratulate you on your enterprise, industry 
and intelligence in preparing same. I surely want a copy 
of the English edition.'' 

807 



Hon. Isidore Armijo, Editor of El Eco del Valle, Las 
Cruces, N. M., and member of the constitutional convention. 

"I frankly believe that no private or pul)lic library can 
be complete without having- on its table the ''Illustrated 
History of New Mexico"' by Bemjamin M. Read, a rare 
literary g-em that beams with all that is rich and splendid 
in the historv of our romantic New Mexico." 



Hon. Aurelio Espinosa, Professor of Lang-uages, Stan- 
ford University, California, and author and writer of 
renown : 

Stanford University, Calif., July 15, 1911. 
Hon. Benjamin M. Read, 

Santa Fe. New Mexico. 

Dear Sir: — Your "Illustrated History of New Mexico" 
is a work of g-reat importance and would do honor to many 
a famous historian. Your work deserves a thousand 
eulog-ies. not only on account of the sound criticism and 
erudite exposition of the capital points of the history of 
New Mexico but also on account of the g-reat and merited 
value and weight ( unnoticed by others) which you give 
our race in the conquest, colonization and social organiza- 
tion of the Territory. The excellent historical discernment 
seen in each page is worthy of all praise. The chapters 
treating of the iiistorical events of New Nexico from 1846 
to the present time or, the whole of book fourth, is the 
place where you disclose truths and facts (well authenti- 
cated an proved ) that ought to put the enemies of our race 
and our people to shame. I have been astonished with the 
great amount of matter your history contains, and doubtless 
it has cost you a good deal of money and labor. The 
people of New Mexico owe you a marked favor which you 
have undoubtedly deserved. In conclusion, I must again 
congratulate you, and my ardent wish is that you keep on in 
your studies for the honor and benefit of the New Mexican 

people." 

Yours truly, 

AURI]LIO ESPINOSA. 



Father Tommasini, S. J. 

(Translation. ) 
Mr. B. M. Read, 

Santa Fe, N. M. 
Very Esteemed Friend: — For many years back I have 
appreciated the efforts that you were making to raise from 
the obscurities of the times the brightness of the natives of 
New Mexico. Now, when after elaborate studies you have 
given us a complete work of "Historia Ilustrada deNuevo 

808 



Mexico,-' (Illustrated History of New Mexico) I take this 
opportunity of offering- you my congratulations, and to 
remit the sum of $10.00 for the copy I received from the 
hands of Father Mandalari. 

Please receive my good wishes, and I pray to God to 
grant you long years and health for the prosecution of 
your works and to have good success with them. 

Your affectionate friend, 

P. TOMMASINI, S. J. 



Cribute from Spam for Reaa's l^istory. 

Significant letter that shows fame of New Mexico author 
to extend beyond ocean. . tj- ,^,.^ar, 

What is thought in Spain about the works of Histoiian 
Benjamin M. Head, whose English version of his Illustrated 
History of New Mexico is now in the press of the New 
Mexican, is gathered from the following fine acknowledg- 
ment of Professor Antonio Aragon Montejo of Madrid, 
who was the first literary agent of Mr. Read in Europe, 
being succeeded by Francisco Sicilia, LL. D., of Madrid 
corroborating the statements as to the untiring efforts and 
expense of Mr. Read, in order to furnish the new StatQ in 
particular, and the world in general, with an authentic 
correct and true history of the glorious deeds of the 
ancestors of the Spanish-American people, the intrepid 
Conquistadores. Don Antonio Aragon writes: 

(Translation.) 

Madrid, December 19, 1911. 
Mr. Benjamin M. Read, 

Santa Fe, N. M. _ 

Dear Sir:-I am just in receipt of your attentive letter 

dated the 2nd instant, as well as of the printed index of 
vour work-"Historia de Nuevo Mejico. 
'it is to me a most gratifying duty to send -vo;^- before 
anything else together with my heartfelt congratulations 
for Lavfng brought to a successful close so important a 
wort my most^incere acknowledgments for the kind 
nhra es which vou dedicate to me at the end of your Preface, 
and eve- though I feel that the eulogies you bestow on 
Ty modest cooperation are undeserved I -nno but t 1 
nroud at this moment, on account of having placed mj 
work at the service of the history of that country 
Ilthough I am unacquainted with that history in 
details, having not received the volumes ot tjou advxse 
^f cnrl for which I am impatiently waiting, i never 
Tele ;Tup,oL on account o.'the corresvondence between 

* iad vo'u'r constant searching afte- trustworthy data, 

809 



that it must be a work of genuine real merit and remark- 
able erudition. 

When throug-h our mutual friend, Dr. Luis Hernandez, 
you requested from me an extract of the speeches of those 
illustrious personages, who came as an honor to the first 
Cortes of my country in 1810, and in a most special manner, 
those delivered by Don Pedro Bta. Pino, who was the 
representative from New Mexico, I felt somewhat of a 
dread, because with all my attachment to historical sub- 
jects, I had never so far contributed so directly to the 
formation of history. 

When that first work of mine had happily ended, you 
again required my help in looking- for data, which, on 
account of their stretching- out far back to very remote 
epoclis, would cost quite considerable money and work to 
obtain; and so it was that, prompted by the same spirit of 
inquiry which guided you, I, witii the deepest interest, in 
books already exhausted, in unedited documents, in auto- 
graphs collected from who had been glorious conquerors 
of those territories, and first bearers of that civilization 
which is today so flourishing there, did look for the notices 
and narratives which you were in need of. 

I did not find everything you asked, but I have the 
consolation that I did contribute something with my notices 
and the books I have forwarded you, to the elucidation of 
many points which have escaped the notice of other 
previous historians. My inability to give you some data 
was not due to lack of good will, nor any failure of mine 
in employing my best efforts to find them. In the National 
Library, in that of the Ministry of War, in the Historical 
Archive, in the Academy of History, and even in the collec- 
tions of reputed book-lovers, I have revised books and 
documents: because aside from furnishing you with the 
support that you desired of me, the thought also has 
guided me of being useful to my country, so unjustly for- 
gotten by those countries which are so much indebted to 
her. 

And here my letter would end, should I not consider it a 
sacred duty to express to you, in closing our so pleasant 
relations, that I shall ever cherish a tender remembrance 
of thegentlemanliness and loyalty which liave characterized 
all your letters, while it is also grateful to me to reiterate 
to you once again the testimony of my sincere friendship. 

Respectfully, -^ 
ANTONIO ARAGON. 



New Mexico owes a large debt to Hon. Benjamin Read 
of Santa Fe, teacher, legislator and lawyer, who has for 
years devoted his energy to the collection and arranging 

810 



of historical material touching- New Mexico. His '"Illus- 
trated History of New Mexico" is considered by men most 
competent to judge of its merits, as the most complete 
authentic account of the past of our state.— New Mexico 
Journal of Education, February 1912, number. 



(Hon. Manuel R. Otero, Register U. S. Lund Office.) 

Santa Fe, N. M., Jan. 11, 1912. 
Hon. Benj. M. Read, 

Santa Fe, N. M. 
My Dearest Friend:— With the g-reatest pleasure I herein 
enclose my agreement to pay you for your "Illustrated 
History of New Mexico." Permit me to add that I have 
no adequate words with which to express my appreciation 
of the praise you so fittingly deserve, for the undaunted 
pains you have taken and for the labor and expenses you 
must have undergone, to at last set aright the "History" 
of our true and beloved New Mexico, and to give our 
ancestors the i:)lace they most undoubtedly, really deserve 
in, the annals of history. 

May your name be in the hearts and memory of every 
true and loyal descendant of the Castillian race, because 
you are the first man who has succeeded in accomplishing 
what other historians have only attempted. 

May the Lord preserve your useful life for the benefit of 
our race for many years to come, is the wish of your. 

True and faithful friend, 

MANUEL R. OTERO. 



Jilt Jlrizona l^istorian. 

(Santa Fe New Mexican April 15, 1912.) 

Sharlot M. Hall, the official historian of Arizona, and 
widely known as a gifted poetess and novelist, has in pre- 
paration a voluminous history of the neighboring state. 
She has been engaged on this task since October, 1909, has 
visited every corner of the state, has collected books and 
manuscripts, taken hundreds of photographs, interviewed 
old settlers and delved into musty records wherever she 
could find them. The state is paying for this and it is a 
wise expenditure. In New Mexico, this work, however, 
has been done at the private expense of one of her citizens, 
Attorney Benjamin M. Read, who has spent a fortune for 
original manuscripts, books, rare portraits and pictures, 
that serve to throw light on the history of New Mexico, 
which is far more interesting and much more far reaching 
in its scope than any history of Arizona could possibly be. 

811 



The result of these painstaking- labors, this expenditure, is 
embodied in an intensely interesting- volume shortly to be 
issued from the press of the New Mexican Printing- Com- 
pany. The book should find a place in every New Mexico 
home, in every school and in every library, as the authentic 
history of the state that g-oes to the orig-inal sources for 
its statements and that is not a mere compilation gathered 
from preceding- histories. 



masterly Ulork Ulortby of all Praise. 

(New Mexican April 22nd, 1912.) 

Remarkable tribute paid the history of Hon. B. M. Read 

by famous scholar of Spain. 

Madrid, March 30, 1912. 
Mr. Benjamin M. Read, 

Santa Fe, N. M. 

My Dear Sir and Disting-uished Friend: — I have the 
pleasure of acknowledging- receipt of your notable work, 
the History of New Mexico, which you have so kindly sent 
to me. 

I am sincerely g-rateful for your attentive courtesy and 
purpose to read with all care your publication, being- sure 
that I will find therein historical facts and narratives of 
great interest. As yet I have had time only to make a 
cursory examination, and from that I am convinced that I 
have before me a masterly work worthy of all praise and 
on that account I send you my most enthusiastic con- 
gratulations. 

Repeating my thanks for your kind attention, I remain 
as ever you affectionate friend and servant. 

ANTONIO ARAGON MONTEJO. 

812 



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